They Might Be Giants

De La Soul, “Church”

After the lackluster Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump and the uneven AOI: Bionix, I was wondering if De La Soul were done. The answer was answered definitively by the next album, The Grind Date: no, they were not done. At least part of that was the production they got on the record, with good work from folks like J Dilla, Mad Lib, and 9th Wonder (who is on this track). It’s not groundbreaking in the way their early work was, but it’s a just a solid record all the way through.

Aden, “New Fast”

During the early 90s, parallel to grunge, there was a growing movement of indie pop bands that didn’t make a lot of headway, but were a recognizable subculture. As the 90s went on, a billion of these pillowy soft indie bands popped up. The pressure from all these bands ensured that, eventually, one or more of them would break through (it was Death Cab for Cutie, mostly).

Here’s today, but check out the bonus song I link down below.

The Goats, “Rumblefish”

The second Goats album seemed like it was chasing the trends of early 90s rap, with plenty of stabs towards rock, jazz, and other types of hybrid styles. It doesn’t hang together particularly well, and it’s mostly forgettable. There are some fun moments on the album, but overall, it’s a miss.

They Might Be Giants, “Someone Keeps Moving My Chair”

The opener to the second side of Flood, the album that really put the group on the map. And while it has some truly great tunes on that first half, my HOT TAKE here is that the second half is only so-so. It’s that second half that puts this album nowhere near the top of my favorite albums from TMBG.

Y’all, I screwed up. 4/14 is this project’s birthday, and I just flat missed it. I didn’t forget, I just didn’t get around to posting, and that’s a shame. I don’t want to neglect this! 471 entries over the first two years, right around two-thirds of days. Not bad! But, you know, I haven’t been carving out as much time recently. But nevermind that, I’m going to try and pick up the pace again! HIT IT, PLEXASAURUS REX!

Today!

Girl Talk, “Ffun Haave To”

Before he became the best mashup artist around with Night Ripper, Greg Gillis was much more into noise. Yeah, you still have bits and pieces of recognizable songs floating in and out, but this stuff has much more in common with experimental artists like Negativland than it does with the kaleidoscope of party music that he would later create. In other words, don’t go back further than Night Ripper and expect to find more stuff like that.

Tidy list today!

christian fitness, “love letters in the age of steam”

I really enjoy tom-heavy drum beats like this. Yeah, I wouldn’t want it for every song, but for the occasional tune, bring it on. Also, this song gets in and out in two minutes. Nice work!

Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, “Third Finger, Left Hand”

I gotta say, you can count your fingers differently and really change the intent of this title by quite a bit! This isn’t the best song from Martha Reeves, when it comes down to it. It’s pretty predictable and a little too syrupy. Not unpleasant, but not great.

Today!

They Might Be Giants, “Last Wave”

They Might Be Giants released their 20th studio album, I Like Fun, this year, and it’s a solid entry into their discography. While not their best, it’s still a very good record, and I’m always happy for more music from them. They. Whatever.

Guided By Voices, “Cigarette Tricks”

Remember, Alien Lanes is the album where most people agreed that Guided by Voices seemed to be getting their shit together (graded on a curve, of course).

Good news! No Japanese noise today!

Tribulation, “Cauda Pavonis”

Listen to this track, and think about the other stuff featured on Five Songs in the past. What do you think this band normally sounds like? Some kind of soundtrack-y kind of thing? Something closer to post-rock? Foetus tribute act?

If you look into your heart, you know the correct answer. Something like this? Yeah, it’s metal.

Lambchop, “Jan. 24”

Lambchop chose to release two albums on the same day in 2004, Aw C’mon and No, You C’mon. It’s not entirely clear why they chose to release them as separate records, instead of a double album. There’s not really any distinction between the types of songs on the two albums, and it’s not like one is all b-sides or anything. They just decided to release two records, a bit of an odd decision from a band that has always been a bit odd themselves. At any rate, the world is a better place for more Lambchop songs, so may they release fifty albums on the same day.

Kind of wiplashing around today.

Art Brut, “Formed A Band”

This might be the platonic ideal of the Art Brut song, a song where you legitimately can’t tell if they’re putting you on or not. I think they’re doing both, it’s dead serious as well as an arch joke. Like, it’s many layers of put on that just wraps around itself. Putonception.

They Might Be Giants, “Destroy the Past”

You know, I never actually saw Inception.

Great stuff!

They Might Be Giants, “What Is A Shooting Star?”

You know, now that I’m doing this on a platform with a functional tagging system, I could have just tagged each of these entries with each band, and then I wouldn’t need the index. But we wouldn’t have the “previouslys” either, and I kind of like them? But this is also a hassle to maintain this. And, well, I don’t know if I want to convert everything over.