Five Songs, 8/18/2023

NoFX, “Please Play This Song on the Radio”

I did, in fact, play this song on the radio, which is the sort of thing you can do when you’re holding down the 3 AM-7 AM slot on a Tuesday for a grand total of, like, four listeners. Safe harbor, baby! Anyway, 17yo Josh thought this was a hilarious bit, and absolutely worthy of inflicting on the poor bastards cramming for their thermodynamics final and were just hoping for something to keep themselves awake. I hope hearing the word “shithead” on the radio gave them just a little bit of a jolt.

[Read More]

Five Songs, 2/21/2022

Monobody, “Curry Courier Career”

Is there such a thing as a math jam band? I think there might be.

Trigger Cut, “Fireworks”

This is just pure throwback to mid-90s Amphetamine Reptile stuff. It makes the Pavement band name a little off, though, they should have called themselves “Shitbeard” instead. Anyway, you know I’m a sucker for this stuff.

Vampire Weekend, “Horchata”

This is actually the song that kind of clangs the most from the second Vampire Weekend record. It just feels far too clever, like it’s trying too hard, and ends up ringing false to me. It seems more like the result of a computation than something genuine. I don’t know exactly why that is, but that’s what I get from it, and largely from the entire album. Like Ezra Koenig decided to build the song around that horchata/balaclava rhyme, just to get it out there.

[Read More]

Five Songs, 11/12/2021

De La Soul, “Intro”

The biggest exception to rap skits sucking is pretty much anything with Prince Paul involved. The framing device for De La Soul Is Dead, of an audio storybook detailing kids encountering the record for the first time, is delightfully self-refential and charming. And “cock snot” really is a vivid phrase.

Trigger Cut, “Coffin Digger”

If you call yourself Trigger Cut, you should really be twee indie rock. But no, we’ve got just pure muscular noise rock going here, sounding like nothing so much as vintage Hammerhead or maybe mid-period Unsane. So, yes, it’s throwing me back to the early 90s, just not in the direction the band name suggests.

[Read More]