Thundercat -

Five Songs, 2/18/2022

Posted on February 18, 2022 | Joshua Buergel

Cypress Hill, “Hand on the Pump”

It’s kind of incredible that a song as weird as this one made as much of an impact on popular culture as it did. Not that it doesn’t smoke, it does, but everything from the odd vocal loop, to B-Real’s nasal vocal, to the squeaky noises all over, to the sing-song chorus is off-kilter. It’s fantastic stuff! Just odd.

Common, “Black America Again”

The title track from Common’s 2016 album, he used a lot of guest artists on the record, with the biggest one on this track. Stevie Wonder sounds great, as always, and Common in general turns in a fine performance across the whole album. I think it’s his best record since Be.

Five Songs, 12/18/2021

Posted on December 18, 2021 | Joshua Buergel

Has-Lo, “Everything Is”

The minimal beat here really works well. Not every song can get by on something like this, but Has-Lo pulls it off.

Girls Against Boys, “(I) Don’t Got A Place”

A thing I sometimes wonder about is the extent to which I contradict myself in the archives here. After writing as many entries for songs and bands, I’m sure I’ve said stuff in the past that can’t be reconciled. And I thought to myself, “hey, this is from the Touch & Go records, the last good ones they made, but this isn’t their best record”. I checked the archive, six articles with them, and you know what? 100% consistent! I call the album before this one my favorite from them, twice, and mention that the last Touch & Go record is their last good record. From this sample of one, I can conclude that I’m totally consistent.

Five Songs, 2/18/2021

Posted on February 18, 2021 | Joshua Buergel

Thundercat, “Daylight”

Thundercat is very hard to describe. Jazzy, yeah, but with some R&B, some fusion, some soft rock, some soft jazz? This is from his first album, and he doesn’t get any easier to categorize down the road.

Upsilon Acrux, “Death Before Disharmonic”

Upsilon Acrux is very hard to describe too. Math rock, prog, little bit of krautrock here and there, maybe even the occasional jazzy excursion? In the end, I’ve got to be in a mood to listen to this sort of thing, but in the right frame of mind, nothing else will do.

Five Songs, 12/30/2020

Posted on December 30, 2020 | Joshua Buergel

The B.U.M.S., “When She Walked”

We’ve had this record show up before, but In Wanna Smash Sensation should have been an absolute classic pop punk record. Cheerful and breezy, great tunes, great production from Kurt Bloch behind the boards, it’s just a delight all the way around.

Hum, “Pinch & Roll”

This comes from the second Hum LP, but the first one that really started to get them attention. Electra 2000 was distributed by Cargo Records, getting it into a lot more hands. It would lead to a major label deal, a couple of well-recieved records, and eventually an outstanding reunion record after 23 years. But going back to this album, it’s a very good indie rock record, a good picture of where the underground was in 1993, and worth a listen to see where a long-lived band really got rolling.