The National

The Magnetic Fields, “Meaningless”

Pretty sure this is a repeat!

The National, “Afraid of Everyone”

This is also a repeat!

(That’s a lie, I just don’t want to figure out anything to say about the National. Don’t want to make people mad!)

La Gritona, “Jack Passion”

La Gritona were a noise rock band out of Boston, active in the second half of the 90s, who put out one album and some EPs before ending things. And they smoke, all heavy skronk and yelling, exactly the kind of stuff that’s up my alley. But I had no idea they existed, because by the time their album came out in 1997, I was out of college and slowly losing touch with music. Luckily, their entire catalog was compiled together into a re-release in 2010, where a postiive review brought it to my attention. And maybe this will bring them to someone else’s attention, because this stuff rules.

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, “Down to the Fire”

Last time, I said that I liked Blood Lust more than The Night Creeper. And, yeah, I like this song! Go past me!

Benny Sings, “Familiar”

We don’t listen to a lot of stuff around here that’s just, you know, pop. But it can be a nice break every now and again to relax, put on something pretty and kind of undemanding. That sort of describes this record very well, but I enjoy it as a change of pace.

The Slackers, “Married Girl”

One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands. The bits where the band lays out and Vic Ruggiero comes in first, I love that move. Just a delightful song.

Revolting Cocks, “Crackin’ Up”

During industrial’s commerical heyday, Wax Trax was one of the biggest labels in the scene. One of the things that folks associated with the label did was remix the bands, not just the music. The Revolting Cocks were one of those recombinations, featuring the core Ministry folks and a bunch of other associated people. They were intentionally sillier than most of the other bands in the scene, with the whole thing kind of being a big joke. Occasionally they would produce good stuff, but mostly it ends up being a little bit tedious.

Skinnerbox, “Trying To Be Cool”

Skinnerbox’s What You Can Do, What You Can’t is a charming album from the third wave, full of personality and a distinctive sound, especially King Django’s vocals. Alas, the followup record Demonstration, which gives us this tune, feels really flattened. It sounds to me like a bit of a cynical shot at radio play by injecting some punk into the sound, and it just kind of makes Skinnerbox sound like everybody else.

I’ll often leave shuffle running for a little while after doing one of these things, and sometimes I get these fantastic runs of songs and artists that would make for some great writeups. I have a lot to say about Operation Ivy! But, alas, that would be cheating. The way I’m doing things is that I decide I’m going to write about songs, and then start up the shuffle machine to see what I get from that moment forward. No retroactive choosing of shuffle runs for me! Luckily, there’s almost always something worth talking about. Listen along with me, won’t you?