I really liked the first Lily Allen album, as a bubbly and charming piece of pop that borrowed some elements of ska to add to her confections. Really quite a delightful album. I have largely gotten diminishing returns from each subsequent record, though. This is, to my ears, a pop song that doesn’t really excite me about anything. It might be great, I dunno, it’s just not for me.
[Read More]This was the song that launched the Japandroids, rattling around enough on blogs to get the band the attention that would make their career. It’s a solid capsule of their sound, all fuzzy guitars, propulsive drumming, and catchy shouting. It’s easy to see how people got excited for this, and the excitement would pay off with Post-Nothing and to a greater extent Celebration Rock.
This comes to us from one of the leftovers records that JSBX put out, this one collecting miscellany from Acme. The leftovers records are actually not bad, generally, even if they are kind of shaggy. The truth is that peak JSBX was just fun to listen to, even if maybe they weren’t doing their best material. Anyway, this record is Xtra-Acme USA, and it’s not something to pick up until you’ve worn out the proper albums, but if you’re a JSBX freak you should absolutely listen to it.
[Read More]Just a brief thing from the Roots’ live album, I won’t spend more time on this than it lasts.
The way the drums start up on this track, that’s such a RZA move. The distant piano loop also is a signature. These days, if I came into a beat blind, I couldn’t be sure if it’s a RZA track or not, because his style has been adopted by a lot of folks. But in 1997? Yeah, I could easily pick his stuff out.
[Read More]I don’t know shit about any of this, but I have to say: that song title looks like something from a prog-metal band’s record.
If I played the first ten seconds of this to you, I wonder how long it would take for you to guess that it’s a Built to Spill song? By a minute, of course, it’s obvious, but still.
[Read More]You know, the only Magnetic Fields record I’ve ever heard is this one. There are a lot more, and I have no idea if this record is an outlier in their sound or not. When they started making records, I wasn’t into this sort of music, and I just never looped back to check it out. I guess I’ll just keep the mystery alive. They could sound like Meshuggah or whatever on their other records, and I’ll never know.
[Read More]Aw, I just want to enjoy this. I’m not going to say anything!
Plastic Fang is an album that feels a little bit unfocused to me. They’re experimenting with tweaks to their formula in a few different ways on the album, and I’m not sure it all totally works out. But that said, Spencer still writes some bangers on it, and this is one of the highlights of the record. Just a roaring groove in the mold of Orange.
[Read More]This, from Xtra-Acme USA, is kind of a sketch of a song, but it still cooks pretty good. I mean, just one good “weeeeeeeeeeellllllll” from Spencer is enough to get me going.
There’s some other song that I can’t quite put my finger on that the intro to this song reminds me of. I feel like the guitar tone is very Black Francis, but I’m not entirely sure what song it’s trying to trigger for me. Once you get into the meat of the song, though, that feeling of reminding dissipates.
[Read More]Prince, yes please, take me with you.
The first JSBX was really very much a transitional record between Pussy Galore and what the JSBX would become. There’s just enough of the spastic, unpredictable energy in the proceedings to retain that gutter punk feel. Spencer would continue to draw on those sounds and attitudes throughout the JSBX run, but it’s nowhere as overt as on the first record.
[Read More]This take is from Alpha Mike Foxtrot, the collection of rarities, live versions, and alternate takes that covers the first twenty (!) years of Wilco. “Kicking Television” appears on a bonus EP with A Ghost Is Born, and was also the title track of a live album, so it’s a familiar song from them, but this is an alternate take here.
Apparently, we’re doing rarities collections today. Works for me! Bring it the fuck on!
[Read More]My freshman year roommate couldn’t stand this track, and would insist on skipping it when we listened to this record. Which was often, it was an album we could agree on. I thought I lost that copy of Paul’s Boutique when it was in his car when the car got stolen. But! They found it, and he got the car back! The song that came on when he started it up? “Car Thief”.
[Read More]