Five Songs, 2/22/2021

Skinnerbox, “Trying To Be Cool”

Skinnerbox’s What You Can Do, What You Can’t is a charming album from the third wave, full of personality and a distinctive sound, especially King Django’s vocals. Alas, the followup record Demonstration, which gives us this tune, feels really flattened. It sounds to me like a bit of a cynical shot at radio play by injecting some punk into the sound, and it just kind of makes Skinnerbox sound like everybody else.

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Five Songs, 1/28/2021

Robustos, “My Little Suede Shoes”

The bands that got famous in the third wave of ska were those that took the second wave and went further towards punk. No Doubt, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, folks like Goldfinger, Save Ferris, a bunch of others, they all leaned heavily on rock to make the sound more appealing to a broader audience. But that left out a bunch of other bands who drew more on the first wave and the original sounds, and who didn’t get the attention. Those are the bands that I mostly continue listening to these days. The Robustos are one of those forgotten bands, who played just straight ska, without mixing stuff in, and this album (Introducing…The Robustos) is a good listen.

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Five Songs, 12/15/2019

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, “Hora Cero”

For those who are only recently tuning in to these things, I don’t always have much to say. And usually nothing significant. So, given that, here’s the tremendous insight we have for this song: I like the trumpet.

Wormed, “57889330816,1”

I’m told that Wormed lyrics are about, like, space and shit. An assertion that I can only respond to by tilting my head like a confused dog. This is a little interstitial track during the tech-death madness that is Krighsu. If this sounds intriguing to you, congratulations! You have brain worms!

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