Wheedle's Groove

Ghostface Killah, “The Champ”

This production from Just Blaze (you can tell it’s him because he announces it in the track, in his his trademark understated manner) needs to be played at maximum volume to be properly appreciated. Just trust me on that.

The Spinanes, “72-74”

Been a while since we’ve had The Spinanes, the duo of Rebecca Gates and Scott Plouf, who put out three albums in the 90s before disbanding. Defined by Gates’s lovely songs and a generally spare sensibility that ran contrary to the prevailaing approach in rock (especially for a Seattle band), this stuff holds up really well today. This is from the third and final Spinanes record, Arches and Aisles, which has the biggest arrangements on it, but is still pretty uncluttered.

Run the Jewels, “Early (feat. BOOTS)”

I still think Run The Jewels 2 is the best album from them. In fact, let’s do this!

Run The Jewels 2 RTJ4 R.A.P. Music (aka RTJ 0) Run the Jewels 3 Run the Jewels Meow the Jewels

Broham, “Nothing In Common”

Oh man, that is sweet. Listen to that bass! The horns!

Baby Elephant, “Turn My Teeth Up!”

Baby Elephant is eccentric genius Prince Paul teaming up with funk legend Bernie Worrell for an album of off-kilter funk. Worrell is incapable of not sounding like a million bucks, and Prince Paul is, as mentioned a sentence ago, a genius. So, this album rules.

Squarepusher, “Come On My Selector”

Early Squarepusher is very much drum ’n’ bass, albeit pretty frantic even for a genre known for punishing tempos. Squarepusher is still primarily cutting up the Amen break for the drums, for instance. You can hear his bass playing front and center here, of course, and it’s great despite being firmly in a genre. This EP, Big Loada, would kind of mark the last of the pure drum ’n’ bass, as the next album found him heading in a much more marked fusion direciton.

Queens of the Stone Age, “If I Had A Tail”

There were six years between the majestic, jagged Era Vulgaris and the return album …Like Clockwork, and that time was apparently spent with Homme thinking about bringing things back to the turn of the millenium. To my ears, this album sounds more like Songs for the Deaf than anything else, which is not a bad thing at all. It took a little bit for the album to grow on me, and while I’m still not sure I’d place it at the top of their pile, it’s a fine album from one of the best rock bands around.

We open and close today pretty funky! And, you know, track four is built on the Amen break, so I’ll count that too!

Parliament, “Oil Jones”

Parliament’s first album was in 1970, and Medicaid Fraud Dogg came out in 2018. When I think about the idea that I might do the same job for 48 years, I can’t really wrap my head around it. And I got an early start in my career! Sure, this isn’t George Clinton’s best work. But nevertheless, it’s still impressive.

We finish on a couple of great notes here.

They Might Be Giants, “B19 Spare The Rock (bumper)”

It’s a bumper that was included with a Dial-a-Song download package. Not much else to say.

Descendents, “Coffee Mug”

And this song from the Descendents isn’t a whole lot longer than that bumper! The Descendents were fueled by coffee, including what they called the “bonus cup”, described by Bill Stevenson: “We took ⅓ of a cup of instant coffee grounds, added some hot water, threw in about 5 spoonfuls of sugar, and proceeded to play 10 second songs. The Bonus Cup became a part of everyday Descendents life”.