Wizard Rifle -

Five Songs, 10/4/2021

Posted on October 4, 2021 | Joshua Buergel

Merle Haggard, “Are The Good Times Really Over (I Wish A Buck Was Still Silver)”

Personally, I look to my country music artists for trenchant commentary on monetary policy.

They Might Be Giants, “Bangs”

The opening of Mink Car, the last record TMBG released for Warner Bros. I suppose being released on 9/11 was probably an ill omen for the sales of the record. It contains some really good stuff (“Man, It’s So Loud In Here” is one of my favorites of all-time from them), but overall is kind of treading water a little bit. It was after this album that TMBG began making kids’ records, and after a few of those, I think they really kind of started progressing again.

Five Songs, 11/10/2020

Posted on November 10, 2020 | Joshua Buergel

The Toasters, “East Side Beat”

Your first instinct might be to think that Rob “Bucket” Hingley’s accent here is a terrible put-on. But no, Rob was born in England, so he earned this. At any rate, this is from the first Toasters album, and it captures a band still developing their sound.

Foetus, “Mandelay”

One of the centerpieces of Flow, an album where J.G. Thirlwell ramped up the cinematic nature of his music to another level, while making sure that the perversion of that sound was also present. The noise, the disturbing sounds, the strange interludes - it all combines to a disorienting song that really takes you on a journey. To somewhere. This is one of his very best albums.