The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta, “Eriatarka”

I say this with genuine love, I really do enjoy the Mars Volta, but this is just the most dork-ass band ever, isn’t it? That’s not a bad thing necessarily, but even if you really like the band, it’s impossible to not recognize that the correct location for them is inside a locker.

No Age, “Glitter”

When I got this album on release day, Sonic Boom had some Sub Pop shirts to give away to people who bought it. But by the time I got it, they were down to just, like, toddler shirts. So, in the most [https://www.theonion.com/cool-dad-raising-daughter-on-media-that-will-put-her-en-1819572981](“cool dad raising daughter on media that will put her entirely out of touch with her generation”) moment I’ve ever had, I stuck it on my oldest and then took a photo of her holding the CD (she was baffled but game). I hope I have the photo somewhere, it’s very stupid.

Let’s Go Bowling, “Identity Crisis”

The final Let’s Go Bowling album, Stay Tuned, feels a little like they were finally letting the commercial winds blow them along towards rock. While their previous records had been pretty traditional, this one definitely feels more of a piece with the other ska bands who were hitting it big. But, of course, by 2000 the commercial appetite for ska was collapsing, so if it was a bid for fame, it didn’t really work out. My least favorite of the four records I have from them (there’s apparently a debut out there that I’ve never heard).

Koenjihyakkei, “Angherr Shisspa”

Koenjihyakkei is a band led by Tatsuya Yoshida, the drummer/lunatic in Ruins. It’s an off-kilter take on prog, inspired by Magma, and it’s every bit as unhinged as Ruins ever was. Just with a bigger band. I mean, I suppose I don’t really need to describe it, you can hear it just fine. How would I go about describing this, anyway?

The Mars Volta, “Askepios”

Oh, is this what we’re doing today, shuffle?

Sloan, “Deeper Than Beauty”

Sloan are a rarity, a band who clearly should have been big in America, but instead settled for a long and celebrated career in Canada. This stuff, really smart power pop, absolutely could have broken through at basically any moment, and just kind of never did. If you like this sort of thing at all, this album and One Chord To Another are must-listens.

Yo-Yo Ma, “Suite no. 1 in G major, BWV 1007: III. Courante”

I feel too dumb to even type out that song title, much less listen to this.

Earl Van Dyke, “Soul Stomp”

We’re in 1964 here, with a well-named song, as this really is quite a stomp. The organ is just fantastic.

The Beastie Boys, “Fight For Your Right”

I think that more than half of the times in my life that I’ve wound up in some stranger’s car, aimlessly wandering towards or away from a party, either this album or Paul’s Boutique was playing. It’s basically the soundtrack to unfocused teenage ennui to me.

Nice stuff today.

The Mars Volta, “This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed”

This is from the first Mars Volta album. So, as you can tell, the Mars Volta were swinging for the fences right away. You never really know where they’re going, and that just was more and more true as things went along.

Señor Coconut, “The Robots”

Oh man, you’re all in for a treat. Señor Coconut is a project of electronic artist Uwe Schmidt, who created this album to document a fake Latin group doing an entire album of Kraftwerk covers. It’s pretty much all note-for-note covers of the originals, but with little flourishes here and there. It’s all played with a totally straight face, and it’s 100% delightful. I never knew that I needed fake Latin covers of Kraftwerk, but I did. Very much.

Pretty experimental today.

Death Grips, “Black Quarterback”

From the double album The Powers That B, as with most things Death Grips, this is pretty singular. It’s really unclear what you’d call this, other than experimental. Maybe Dadaist?

Tilt, “Small Bills”

This comes from Play Cell, a pop-punk album on Lookout distinguishable primarily for the rarity of a female singer in a scene where you didn’t find very many of them. It’s a decent album, but not great, and somehow I ended up with four albums from them.

I try and mention it periodically: there’s an index of these posts. Just in case you want to go poking around in there. We also have music for today!

Rocket From the Crypt, “Strangehold”

I know I brought up the horns before, but it really is a shame that the sax is regarded as hopelessly cheesy in a rock context. We should reclaim the sax! Rocket From the Crypt did their part, anyway.

Shuffle is continually reminding me of things that I had forgotten about, and occasionally never knew about in the first place.

Medeski, Martin & Wood, “Just Like I Pictured It”

Jazz artists who add in more than a little soul and funk, Medeski, Martin & Wood have been around for a long time, but I only bought this one album. I think it was mentioned somewhere that there were some hip-hop touches on the record, but it’s been long enough since I bought this that I can’t really recall exactly what the original attraction was. I have to say, I’m really enjoying this song a fair bit.

After I kept shuffle on yesterday, I got Silkworm, Mono Puff, The Roots - lots of bands I wanted to talk about. It can be agonizing letting stuff like that go away, but rules are rules. Without rules, this whole thing just becomes “Josh writes about music however he wants” and then I’ll probably stop doing it. And then ones of people will be deprived of this scintillating work!

Up in the sky! It’s a playlist!