Wire

Well, this blog officially turns five today! There have been 1137 posts on this site, if my tagging is to be trusted, so a pace better than every other day. More than five thousand little capsules on songs and bands, and that’s a dang lot of vapid garbage. I’ve probably spent more time on this than any other creative project, and I’m really not entirely sure why. I guess in the end I’ll be a better writer, and it’s nice to do something consistently. I don’t have an endgame for this or anything. It’s just, you know, music is nice.

The Busters, “Candy”

The Busters are from Germany, which was a little bit of a hotbed of two-tone-styled ska in the late 80s/early 90s before the third wave really got rolling. The Busters were never serious about anything, and sometimes the goofiness could get grating. It’s well-done for what it is, but it doesn’t really quite connect with me.

Wire, “Start To Move”

I go through phases where I listen to lots of certain bands, like I suspect lots of people do. There are also some bands that never really fall out of rotation, and Wire is definitely on that list. I’m never sorry to spin this stuff.

Wire, “Practice Makes Perfect”

The second Wire album, Chairs Missing, was a little less frenetic than the debut record. Many of the songs are given more room to develop, with a little bit more of a drone-y feeling to some of the songs. It’s still great, but it’s a different sort of record. This is how the record opens, setting the stage for how things would go.

Piss Vortex, “Abyss”

Hee hee, Piss Vortex. Sorry folks, couldn’t resist this band! A little grindcore never hurt anybody! (This is not true, lots of people have probably been hurt at grindcore shows.)

Monobody, “Country Doctor”

Monobody is one of those bands that has a real mismatch of names. For whatever reason, I don’t think this should be a math-rock/post-rock kind of band. “Monobody” seems like it should really be a garage rock outfit, all galloping guitars, distortion, and sneers. No horns should be involved.

Quelle Chris, “Guns”

The title track to his 2019 release, this was one of the best hip-hop albums released that year. The sort of dream-like production really sets off against the serious subject matter of the lyrics. A great album.

Today!

BIG|BRAVE, “Look At How The World Has Made A Change”

Au De La, the album by BIG|BRAVE that we’re listening to, is an odd beast. Mostly drone, kind of post-rock, sort of metal-y, it’s atmospheric and pounding and pretty different from most stuff out there. It’s not the kind of thing I always want to listen to, but it’s good stuff at times.

Claw Hammer, “The Spawning Of A New Error”

We’re discussed how Claw Hammer made their first album a full-length cover of Devo’s first album. Well, this is the first track on that album, before they launched into the thing. It kind of describes the idea. Oh, and they called it Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are NOT Devo!.

Excellent, punk leaning set today.

Joyce Manor, “Eighteen”

I don’t think there’s been any period of time after the punk explosion where there were not bands making pop punk of some variety or another. You can basically draw an unbroken line from, say, Stiff Little Fingers up through the bands of today. So, here’s Joyce Manor, very much in that classic pop punk tradition. And it’s fun!

christian fitness, “other men’s wives”

Andrew Falkous with another track from his solo act, which really does pretty much just sound like Future of the Left. Which I mentioned last time, but whatever.

December! Fear not, there will be no Christmas themed Five Songs to contend with here, unless shuffle pulls something up randomly (and there’s very little Christmas music in my collection). Maybe I’ll do some obnoxious metal-themed special on the 25th though. Here’s today’s tunes.

Mantar, “Cult Witness”

One of the things I like doing is going through “Best of the Year” roundups from various music blogs that do good work and just trying a bunch of stuff I’ve never heard of. Mostly, I do pretty well through this process, and even if they’re not all favorites, it gives me a chance to break out of my established loops and try and find some new bands. It can be easy, especially as I get older, to just rely on the same stuff I’ve always listened to, and this sort of explicit process helps shield against that.