The Slackers

The Slackers, “Sabina”

To start off on the right foot here, the Slackers don’t have any bad records. But they have ones I love more than others. The Great Rocksteady Swindle didn’t totally resonate with me initially, so I didn’t listen to it much. But I decided to rock it hard for a week or so, playing it every night, for reasons that are unclear to me. Great decision as it turns out. The record is a banger, an upper tier record from them, up next to Wasted Days and Redlight.

The Slackers, “Like a Virgin”

Several times in the past (no, I’m not going to look it up), I’ve talked about how mostly ska covers do nothing for me. The major exception to that are the Slackers, who consistently kill it. But I’d also listen to Vic Ruggiero sing a menu.

Mix Master Mike, “U Know the Name”

Legendary DJ Mix Master Mike has a few albums out under his name, where he often brings along various guest rappers to tear it up in-between instrumental tracks. Spin Psycle is the best of that bunch, off of a very good guest roster.

Torche, “Reverse Inverted”

For how often I mention Torche, it’s nice to actually get the band in here. Always loud, always delightful.

Samiam, “Factory”

Just going full-on big rock today. With luck, everything we get will soar, and it’ll be a rare feel-good Five Songs list. But, knowing my library, we’ll probably get Einstürzende Neubauten mic-ing up a construction site and hammering on it with a ladle instead.

The Slackers, “Wasted Days”

Well, it doesn’t exactly soar, but it’s still a summery thing, so I’ll count it. The spare guitar in the opening, the gentle unison of the sax and the trombone, all leading to Vic Ruggiero’s plaintive question is one of my favorite moments by the Slackers. They’re willing to just let this languid bouncer cook, resisting the temptation to layer on too much, and it’s such a great tune as a result. The hottest it gets is Hillyard’s solo, but even there, the extra ornamentation is really just limited to some “oooooohhhs” in the background. And bonus points for Ruggiero’s tremendous delivery of the word “sober”. Great tune.

The Apples in Stereo, “About Your Fame”

I do enjoy poking fun at the Apples in Stereo around here, but this is a sweet tune. So, yeah, some of their stuff can be unambitious, but when the pop is dialed in, it’s pretty excellent.

Nine Inch Nails, “Corona Radiata”

2005 through 2008 has been Trent Reznor’s most productive period, with three full albums and an instrumental one coming out in less time than it usually takes him to make one album. The Slip is the final record of that sequence before he went back into hibernation, and it’s generally the most straightforward of the four. Uh, this track notwithstanding. While I think Year Zero is the best of that bunch, there’s a catharsis with this record that is satisfying. Again, this dry hump of a song aside.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American reader/listeners! I don’t think I have any non-American reader/listeners! I barely have any American ones. Hmm, let’s do “dinner” for a special word. For those of you who haven’t seen me explain these before, when I do a special, I search for a word or phrase in the library and pick the random songs from that.

The Evens, “Dinner With The President”

The Evens (Amy Farina and Ian MacKaye) put out their second album, Get Evens, pretty quickly after the first one. And I think it’s a step forward, they seemed to be more comfortable with how to write songs to suit such a stripped down lineup. Is folk-punk a thing? I guess it is.

The True Loves, “Kabuki”

Soul band from beautiful Seattle, this was one of those occasional finds from when I found myself trapped in a vehicle without Bluetooth and heard something good on KEXP. (Specifically, a U-Haul I was driving from Kingston to Bainbridge Island.) It’s a delight, of course, and I wish I had some way other than just serendipity to find something like this. Oh well!

The Slackers, “And I Wonder?”

In my mind, The Question is my least favorite Slackers album. I’m not really sure at this point exactly why. I adored Redlight (it’s still one of my favorite ska records), and I was super geeked for the follow-up. And something about it didn’t quite sit right with me. And I just kind of didn’t listen to it much and filed it away. It’s not that I fell off the band, mind you. The next studio record, Wasted Days, is ALSO one of my favorite ska records. I still eagerly buy everything they put out, love a bunch of their records, have seen them multiple times…but I’ve never really gone back to try this album again. Just one of those blind spots. I should really fix that!

Kool & the Gang, “Funky Man”

The second Kool & the Gang record was a live album, including a couple tunes from the first record, but mostly otherwise new songs. They followed it up with another live record with more new material, which was an interesting move. Anyway, both live records rule, like all early Kool & the Gang material.

The Beatles, “Please Please Me”

It’s pretty fascinating that the band went from this to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in just four years. I guess that sort of rapid evolution can happen when you release nine albums in those four years.

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.

Can-i-bus, “Get Retarded”

Hoo boy.

Steroid Maximus, “Quilombo”

Love that upright bass! We’ve had Steroid Maximus before, but this is one of J.G. Thirlwell’s (Foetus, Wiseblood, Manorexia, Clint Ruin, etc) many aliases. Steroid Maximus is all instrumental, tending towards jazz and cinematic stuff. It’s excellent, and this track gives a great sense for what you’d be in for.

The Slackers, “Don’t Forget The Streets”

From the excellent 2008 album Self Medication, this is as good a self-summary of the band as they’re likely to serve up. By the time they hit this album, it was clear that the Slackers were survivors. They started during the boom years of the third wave, and then endured the collapse of their first label, the implosion of the scene, and the derision of music fans. And through it all, they kept cranking out great tunes.

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.