They Might Be Giants

Television, “See No Evil”

There have been bands as cool as Television was when they released Marquee Moon, but I’m not sure there have been any cooler.

SWANS, “In My Garden”

On Children of God, Jarboe’s contributions to the band were placed much more at the center of things. The transition from the sound of nihilist, crushing despair over to spooky, creepy despair was thus complete. This era of the band is probably my least favorite, but that’s mainly just due to how much I like some of their other periods. As always, SWANS are never less than interesting and frequently much more than that.

They Might Be Giants, “Experimental Film”

The Spine is a very elaborate album from TMBG. The production is really lush and layered, and it pays off in songs like this one. As the years go on, I actually end up appreciating this album more and more.

Idylls, “Fagged Out On The Beach”

Just a little transitional track here, not a ton to say about it.

Crystalized Movements, “The Second a Siren”

The production on This Wideness Comes is like an extra member of the band. There’s something about the way the fuzz and compression interacts with the band that gives it a distinctive feel. I think it’s the separation of the vocals from the rest of the band that is part of it, it almost sounds like two different recordings.

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.

Ne’er-Do-Wells, “Skybolt X-66”

Rock ’n’ roll! Straight outta the 50s! Or 1993, whatever.

Don Caballero, “Room Temperature Lounge”

From Singles Breaking Up, Vol. 1, which is a singles comp, as you could probably guess. Kind of hard to believe that you can consider this song and the previous one (separated by a mere four years!) as both being products of the 90s rock underground.

They Might Be Giants, “All Time What”

2015-2018 was an extremely productive period for TMBG, with a flurry of albums driven in part by a revival of the Dial-a-Song project. Of that burst of records, the gem is I Like Fun, a record loaded with catchy tunes, but also some pretty fun song structures. This isn’t one of the killer tunes from it, but even as one of the lesser tracks, it still has that big horn arrangement and is a good time.

The Nation of Ulysses, “Cool Senior High School (Fight Song)”

Back in the day, there were troglodytes on Usenet that hated the Nation of Ulysses for being too arty, too pretentious, just too much. How stupid is that? This shit rocks, people are dumb.

Death Cab For Cutie, “I Will Follow You Into The Dark”

OK, you’ve all heard this song a billion times, on radio stations, as various crappy covers, and as the background music to a weepy scene on a middlebrow TV drama. So, whatever. What I want to talk about is this bit from the Wikipedia entry on the song, which I went to go look at to see how high this thing charted (which I no longer care about).

Intermix, “Voices”

We encountered Delerium the other day, and now we have another side project from the same folks. While their main act, Front Line Assembly, was squarely in the industrial dance category, Leeb and Fulber used different monikers to explore different kinds of electronic music. Intermix was more focused on a more techno oriented approach. Like Delerium, it’s not really my bag, so I just have the first album from them.

Tilt, “Dental Wreck”

There are certainly things that can be bad about punk. But there’s a floor on how bad it gets - if you keep things energetic and the songs short, it’s always going to hit at least reasonably well.

They Might Be Giants, “Lost My Mind”

Nanobots had a decent number of these kind of big, dramatic songs from TMBG. It’s a bit of a theatrical album, and a solid one from them.

They Might Be Giants, “Wait Actually Yeah No”

The latest TMBG album finds them returning to their mixed-media approach, producing a combination album/book entitled, uh, Book. It’s a typical late-period TMBG album, with lush arrangements and plenty of hooks. At this point, they know what kind of album they want to make and are very good at it. It’s the sort of thing that those of you who are into this sort of thing will like.

Prince, “Take Me With U”

Prince, yes please, take me with you.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, “‘78 Style”

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.

Marlowe, “Spring Kick”

Marlowe, the collaboration between L’Orange and Solemn Brigham, put out their second album (entitled Marlowe 2) and continued in the same vein. It’s all gnarly breakbeats, surprising samples, and rapid-fire rhymes. Lovely stuff.

Hybrid, “Doomed to Failure”

There are a lot of bands named Hybrid, if you go looking for them. This one is the extreme metal band from the US who put out a couple of albums and disappeared. It’s more like tech death metal than anything, although they’re clearly going for a blend of a lot of different things. This bit where other, non-metal genres are blended in can work, but it’s tricky, and I’m not really sure they pull it off.