They Might Be Giants

The White Stripes, “Conquest”

Probably the most out-there song on Icky Thump, this flamenco goof is not only stylistically funny, but also happens to be a cover, making it another outlier on the record. It’s pretty fun, though.

They Might Be Giants, “Weep Day”

This is from Mightathon, a compilation of b-sides and non-album tracks from their early years, roughly around Lincoln. There’s some great stuff on this disc, many of which also appear on other comps, so it mostly can be skipped. I’m not sure it’s really very readily available these days anyway.

Isotope 217, “Kryptonite Smokes The Red Line”

Is it post-rock or jazz? Half of the band is from Tortoise, so that’s a big post-rock vote. But, they have multiple horns! So, jazz? But Godspeed You! Black Emperor have multiple horns, right? [checks] Hmm, only one listed. I’m going to say that more than one horn makes you into jazz. Gonna have to see if the horn rule holds up.

Noname, “Regal”

Noname is from Chicago, and first gained some fame working with Chance the Rapper. Her 2018 album, Room 25, is fantastic - jazzy, smooth, she has great delivery, it’s a real delight.

The Meters, “Funky Miracle”

Mostly, when we get a funk track on here, I just pull the textual equivalent of a stink face. “Goddamn,” I’ll say, or “holy shit” or some other incoherent blurt. It conveys nothing about the music other than my elemental appreciation for it. I’d like to apologize for my limitations as a writer here. I don’t really know what I’m doing, or even why I’m doing it. I just like being connected to my music a little bit more, and this blog is a way to do that. And, if I may add: godDAMN.

They Might Be Giants, “They’ll Need A Crane”

This song is a great example of how John Linnell is capable of writing a bouncy, charming song that nevertheless has a melancholy core to it. He usually bangs out at least one of those on each record, and there’s always some turn of phrase in them that really sticks with me. “There’s a restaurant we should check out / where the other nightmare people like to go / I mean nice people / Baby wait / I didn’t mean to say nightmare” just runs through my head all the time. Lincoln is real good, y’all.

They Might Be Giants, “Critic Intro”

This is the intro to Giants Jubilee, which is a comp album containing b-sides, EP tracks, and demos from the early years of the band. While there are some fun things on here, it’s really only for completists.

SPK, “Retard”

Uh, sorry about the song title here. I don’t really know what to do about this kind of thing, so I just leave it as is and trust my audience. Anyway, SPK were an industrial noise act led by Graeme Revell, who would go on to a long and successful career scoring films. Like a lot of early industrial acts, the ugliness was the point. There was little attempt to make this stuff appealing, it was all created as a way to get emotional reactions from people.

Arab Strap, “Flirt”

Folks, the streak of metal is over!

I wonder what proportion of my music library is various genres. I think just plain “rock” probably dominates, but I’d love to know what percentage is metal, rap, soul, ska, or whatever else. I wish I could trust the genre metadata on things.

Superchunk, “100,000 Fireflies”

This b-side comes to us from the “The Question Is How Fast” single. Superchunk took singles seriously from the beginning, all the way down to releasing actual 7" singles at a time when not many bands were doing that. As a result, their b-sides were always pretty good. Happily, they’ve done a good job of collecting these things together (this one makes it to Incidental Music: 91-95).

Frisk Frugt, “Solsorte Synger Solen Op”

Frisk Frugt is the alias of Anders Lauge Meldgaard, who makes experimental pop music using modified toy instruments and various homemade instruments. He’s an artist I found through The Quietus, which can be a good source of music out of left field. It’s an interesting album, unlike anything else I really have, and there’s always room for stuff like that in my collection.

Hepcat, “Prison of Love”

You know what else we always have room for around here? Ska. Always! Can’t wait for a fourth wave.

Soccer Mommy, “yellow is the color of her eyes”

This seven-minute tune is the centerpiece of Soccer Mommy’s record from last year, Color Theory. This record showed up on a lot of year end lists, and while I think it’s good, I’m a little lyric blind at times, so I’m not sure it’s grabbed me quite the same way it did others. But take a listen, if you like this, you’ll like this album.

Poster Children, “Clock Street”

Unlike a lot of rock bands putting out records in the early 90s, the Poster Children were not signed in the wake of Nevermind. They found their way onto Sire for their 1990 album Daisychain Reaction, putting them ahead of that particular game. Nevertheless, Nirvana’s success put them in a good spot for their followup album, Tool of the Man. It’s more Pixies than Nirvana, with a bit too much brightness to really break through in that scene. But, listening 17 years on, this stuff sounds fresher than a lot of grunge does these days.

Eddie Holland, “Take A Chance On Me”

Alas, no, this isn’t a predecessor of the ABBA song, but now I want to hear Motown style covers of ABBA songs.

The Pietasters, “Without You”

Seems like we’ve had a lot more of the Pietasters live than we have from their studio work, which is kind of a shame. A rational person might ask, well, why don’t I just remove the live record from the collection? To which I say to you, Rational Person, why the hell are you even paying attention to this dumb blog? Shouldn’t you be doing some imaginary figment business or something?