Whiskeytown

Deerhoof, “Department of Corrections”

I don’t buy every Deerhoof record, because that would probably be too much Deerhoof. But I do own five of them, because it’s all delightful stuff that I enjoy listening to. It’s a balance, and I feel pretty good about where I landed.

Whiskeytown, “If He Can’t Have You”

This is good. I like this. I should listen to more country.

Descendents, “Good Good Things”

While I know that people mostly love and remember the hyper-caffeinated juvenile stuff, which of course I enjoy as well, I think that I might enjoy when they recorded more serious songs more. Yes, part of that is just the contrast, but they really could do melancholy quite well.

The Dramatics, “In the Rain”

A repeat, but happy to listen to it again.

Dirty Three, “Last Horse on the Sand”

Dirty Three are an instrumental post-rock band out of Australia, distinguished primarily by being led by a violinist. I’m actually more into this sort of sound than I was in the late 90s when this album came out, so maybe it’s worth sitting with the band some more. They certainly have a lot of records out there.

The Wisdom of Harry, “Unit One”

I will look up little biographical details on acts when I’m doing this, to make sure I’ve got years right, or to spell names correctly, or whatever. And in the process, I’ll see some of what others have written about bands sometimes. When I did that for the Wisdom of Harry to check when this album came out (2000, which was earlier than I remembered), I noticed that the writer there compared this band to Mogwai, My Bloody Valentine, and Catherine Wheel. Uh.

Whiskeytown, “16 Days”

Ryan Adams’ first foray into country, the first Whiskeytown record is alt-country only in the sense that it wasn’t made for pop-country radio. Other than that, it’s a country record in every sense. It’s a pretty good record, but I don’t find it as compelling as other alt-country acts, so it doesn’t get played very often.

The Du-Rites, “The Mean Machine”

Among the many reasons to love the Du-Rites is that they produce a steady stream of singles, which all consistently smoke. This is the a-side to one of those 7"s, and come on, that’s tasty.

The Reindeer Section, “If Everything Fell Quiet”

The Reindeer Section is a Scottish supergroup, featuring members of Belle & Sebastian, Snow Patrol, Arab Strap, Mogwai, and others. The resulting album actually sounds a lot more coherent than what you normally expect from a supergroup, primarily because the songs were all written by Gary Lightbody (of Snow Patrol). The rest of the folks here fill out the roster, and they do it quite ably.