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Post by pantsgoblin on Nov 27, 2023 11:02:15 GMT -5
On Eels: I was that guy, the one who was excited for more Eels songs. Can't say I listen to them much these days but back in ~2002-07 and they'd be up there for me. I saw them live a couple of times during that period and they were fun shows! The 4 years between Blinking Lights and Revelations (2005 (if memory serves, it's a good one!)) and Hombre Loco was too long though, I'd moved on by 2009 and haven't listened to a dang thing they've put out since. I like Electroshock Blues and even put "P.S. You Rock My World" on my wedding mix but I can't say I followed them beyond that. The documentary about Mark Everett's estranged physicist father is quite interesting if you haven't seen it: vimeo.com/58603054
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monodrone
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Post by monodrone on Nov 27, 2023 11:09:08 GMT -5
On Eels: I was that guy, the one who was excited for more Eels songs. Can't say I listen to them much these days but back in ~2002-07 and they'd be up there for me. I saw them live a couple of times during that period and they were fun shows! The 4 years between Blinking Lights and Revelations (2005 (if memory serves, it's a good one!)) and Hombre Loco was too long though, I'd moved on by 2009 and haven't listened to a dang thing they've put out since. I like Electroshock Blues and even put "P.S. You Rock My World" on my wedding mix but I can't say I followed them beyond that. The documentary about Mark Everett's estranged physicist father is quite interesting if you haven't seen it: vimeo.com/58603054I have and yes, it was good! It came out around the time I last saw them and they showed it in lieu of an opening act. Weird vibe for a concert hall but as a former physics undergraduate who dropped out because Quanum Mechanics was too much I got a lot out of it.
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Post by ganews on Nov 27, 2023 13:27:39 GMT -5
That Silversun Pickups song really transported me back to grad school, that window in time where I was too busy to go illegally downloading a bunch of music and didn't have Nominally Above-board Streaming to listen to, right before Pandora. I streamed the old Atlanta terrestrial alternative radio station we all listened to in Georgia, right before it disappeared.
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Post by Nudeviking on Nov 27, 2023 18:53:57 GMT -5
I've been missing out on this Eighteen Visions outfit. Good chugs. On Eels: I was that guy, the one who was excited for more Eels songs. Can't say I listen to them much these days but back in ~2002-07 and they'd be up there for me. I saw them live a couple of times during that period and they were fun shows! The 4 years between Blinking Lights and Revelations (2005 (if memory serves, it's a good one!)) and Hombre Loco was too long though, I'd moved on by 2009 and haven't listened to a dang thing they've put out since. I got really into Silversun Pickups for a few years there too as a result of being in a band with a Billy Corgan And His Smashing Pumpkins obsessive who wrote similarly toned guitar riffs. That album (Carnavas) and the one after it (Swoon) are still in semi-regular rotation here but they got a lot less fuzzy guitared and more bleeped and blooped as time went on so I've stopped paying attention to their newer stuff. That was pretty much my trajectory with Silversun Pickups as well. I liked Carnavas and Swoon a lot. Was less hot on Neck of the Woods. Have no idea if they released anything after that.
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Post by Nudeviking on Nov 30, 2023 3:35:35 GMT -5
Week 12
It's time for ten more songs chosen at random by the iTunes algorithm from an external hard drive filled with mp3s I'd downloaded off the internet and then forgotten about for over a decade. Kind of slow week here to be honest but I think that's to be expected sometimes with a project like this. Sometimes you get a week where it's all bangers and then other times it's a week like this week where it's largely stuff I don't have any real strong opinions about and thus don't have all that much to say though maybe all of you will think differently and have a ton to say about The Death Set or Doris Henson.
Subdebs - "12XU" (1999)
I think late 90s girl groups playing shambolic punky pop music released by indie labels in the Pacific Northwest might be my favorite microgenre of music. While the Subdebs are not my all time favorites of that very specific genre of music (it's either Gaze or the Bangs depending on my mood) they are still very good and the world would be a better place if more bands sounded like this. This is the Greatest Song of All Time of the Week.
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - "White Corolla" (2009)
This sounds like something that soundtracked a commercial for antidepressant medicine in the 2010s playing in the background while a guy talked really fast about how I should ask my doctor if Grinopan is right for me and how side-effects may include gout and explosive diarrhea. That's not to say I hate it. I don't. To be honest I kind of dig the chintzy drum machines but I could see an album of this stuff wearing thin real fast.
Ima Robot - "Creeps Me Out" (2006)
This is fuckin' obnoxious but not even in a fun way. It just sounds shitty with some dork rapping very poorly over shit-ass synth pop punk nonsense. This is one of the worst songs to pop up since I started listening to these songs.
Avail - "C.Days" (2000)
Avail motherfuckers! You want some high energy hardcore you can bellow along to with your buddies? Avail's got you covered. You don't want that? Too bad! That's all Avail does.
The Death Set - "Negative Thinking" (2008)
This honestly has a lot in common with the Ima Robot song but for some reason I hate it way less. To be frank I kind of think this song rules. I'm going to check out more of these cats.
Xiu Xiu - "Boy Soprano" (2006)
Xiu Xiu is weird. Their songs are either the greatest things ever or the most annoying bullshit you've ever heard and nothing in between. This one is fortunately the former rather than the later. Good riffs. Outstanding skronky keyboard noise. Good shit.
Channels - "Chivaree" (2006)
This is J. Robbins' from Jawbox's later band. No not Burning Airlines. Not Rollkicker Laydown.either. No, not Office of Future Plans, the other one. Channels. It sounds like a J. Robbins band. If you like any of the other bands I named (or the half dozen other bands of his I don't even know about) you'll like this because it sounds like all those bands.
Bouncing Souls - "Low Life" (1997)
Generic-ass Fat Wreck Chord-ass punk. I never cared much for the Bouncing Souls. If I wanted to listen to this kind of shit I'd generally fuck with Ten Foot Pole or Lagwagon. This isn't bad but not really anything interesting either.
Doris Henson - "Dark Time for the Light Side of the Earth" (2005)
This was some dude(s) from the 90s emo band Giants Chair doing more of a "This Would Play on Your Local Mainstream Alterna-Rock Radio Station in 2001 Between Our Lady Peace and Feeder" style alt-rock. I kind of dig it though maybe not as much as their earlier band.
Kiss Me Deadly - ""Dance 4" (2005)
Breathy female vocals. Twinkly guitars. Drums that sound like (or actually are) drum machines. Shitty three note guitar solos. I think this is kind of good.
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Post by pantsgoblin on Nov 30, 2023 8:54:18 GMT -5
You're quite right about Casiotone wearing thin. I caught that guy in 2003 or so because a favorite local IDM act was opening and it was one of the lamest shows I've ever seen.
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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 6, 2023 21:51:04 GMT -5
Week 13
Ten more songs lovingly selected by my iTunes for me to listen to and then share with you.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Y Control (The Faint Remix)" (2004)
The non-remix version of "Y Control" might be the single greatest song ever written. As far as remixes go this is probably the best you could hope for with a song like that. It retains most of the stuff that made the original rule so much ass and just adds some synth noise and drum machines and funky-ass bass licks to the proceedings. It's fine but I wouldn't pick this one over the original if I wanted to hear "Y Control," but also wouldn't skip this if it popped up in an iTunes Shuffle.
Huckleberry Finn - "I Know" (2004)
This song fuckin' slaps. I wish this is the sort of Korean music that got popular overseas. I saw these cats live maybe four or five times and every single time they played this song the singer/guitarist lady would pogo in high heels. So this song gets not only the coveted Greatest Song of All Time of the Week Award but also the prestigious Iron Ankles Lifetime Achievement Award.
Faux Jean - "Drunk and Stoned" (2003)
If I had to guess this probably came out in the post garage rock revival of the early 00s. These guys and gals love 70s sounding guitar heroics and cowbells and shit. They sound like bell bottom jeans.
Velcro - "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" (2001)
Pretty straightforward cover of a Weezer b-side from the era when Weezer didn't suck all 734.3 kinds of ass. I don't know anything about this Velcro band but I kind of dig their sound and would listen to more of them if there was more of them to listen to but there's not. This is apparently the only song this band ever actually released. Edited to Add: HOLY SHIT IT'S NOT THE ONLY THING THIS BAND DID! I write these things while listening to the actual MP3s I own and then when I come in here to post it I look for YouTube videos to post up because 90% of the time these are not massive hits the average person would know about and when I found one for this one it had a link to the band's bandcamp and they have a ton of shit. It's this kind of bullshit that I think keeps me doing this.
The Outline - "Shotgun" (2006)
Feel like a band that probably played on the Warped Tour in 2005 or 2006. The chorus of this is pretty goddamn great.
The Mood Swings - "Finest Line" (2006)
Lady fronted garage rock. There are vocal harmonies. There are "Ohs." There are "Ahs." There's an awesomely shitty 3 note garage band guitar solo. All the good stuff. This isn't bad but there are a billion other bands that sound like this, many of which I like better than this. I'll keep this around but will 100% get confused when it pops up and think that it's The Halo Friendlies or some shit.
Wondermints - "Ride" (2002)
Pretty generic power pop. Sounds like a song by a better known artist that you can't put your finger on but the second someone utters the name of that better known artist you'll be like "Yes them!" but then someone else will name a different better known artist and you'll be like, "Yes, it sounds like them too!"
Death To Our Enemies - "The Wizard" (2007)
I have no idea what this is. Have zero recollection of it but it fucking rules! Just real good riffage for dirtbags. No one ruining shit with dumb lyrics about the government or anything. OH FUCK THE DRUMMER'S GOING H.A.M. ON THE HI-HATS!! THIS IS SO GOOD! A WAH-WAH GUITAR SOLO ARE YOU FUCKIN' KIDDING ME?!!?!?! FUCK IT! GREATEST SONG OF ALL TIME OF THE WEEK! Sorry "I Know," you had a good run.
검정치마 / The Black Skirts - "Antifreeze" (2008)
Mid 2000s synth heavy Korean indie rock. This song rules but sadly is miles better than anything else these guys ever released that I've heard. Maybe they got great again after I stopped paying attention to them but I very much doubt it.
The Old Haunts - "Poison Control" (2005)
Nervous, twitchy garage rock. It's a song. It's like a minute and a half long. I have no opinions about it.
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Post by pantsgoblin on Dec 7, 2023 10:08:41 GMT -5
Via my brother who lived in Iksan for a decade and married a Korean woman, I've gotten to know a bit about Korean art and entertainment. While I'd hardly consider myself an expert, one thing I've perceived is that they don't seem to do subtext in their stories and everything is text. My brother talks about how his wife, who's not a weepy person in general, cries her eyes out at soap operas that, from a Western perspective, are the most mawkish things you've ever seen. Nudeviking, would you agree with this assessment about text vs. subtext? If so, do you also find that aspect in the sort of Korean music you're posting here?
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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 7, 2023 20:59:37 GMT -5
Via my brother who lived in Iksan for a decade and married a Korean woman, I've gotten to know a bit about Korean art and entertainment. While I'd hardly consider myself an expert, one thing I've perceived is that they don't seem to do subtext in their stories and everything is text. My brother talks about how his wife, who's not a weepy person in general, cries her eyes out at soap operas that, from a Western perspective, are the most mawkish things you've ever seen. Nudeviking , would you agree with this assessment about text vs. subtext? If so, do you also find that aspect in the sort of Korean music you're posting here? I would say that in general with mainstream popular entertainment it is very much the case that what you see is what you get: the comedy is broad and largely physical, the dramas are cliched and sappy and the songs are largely about exactly what the singer is singing. There are, of course, outliers to this in the mainstream and when you move off into the margins and start looking at stuff like the Korean films that get popular overseas but no one here gives a single shit about there's a lot more subtext and nuance to what's being presented. As far as music goes I'd say that the stuff I've been posting here has largely been in that second camp. These are not big artists that the average Korean would have heard about and because of that they are a bit freer and more specific with what they're singing about. Like BTS might sing about love lost but it's going to be real general, designed in a lab to appeal to the widest number of people possible. The lady from Huckleberry Finn, on the other hand, is very likely singing about an actual guy that she broke up with.
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Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Dec 9, 2023 18:06:44 GMT -5
Oh, I actually recognized a lot of these songs just by the band name + titles and could hum the choruses of a bunch of them, which is a first here. I did NOT know the Lodger track, but in the interest of contributing to this thread I would like to ask Nude if he's heard a song by a group called "The Outline" titled "Shotgun," which I came across in the 00s watching Xiao Xiao-style "stick figure gangbang" videos with my brother and which apparently was the soundtrack to many, many, MANY an AMV back in 2006 and which I randomly get stuck in my head once a month. This does sound vaguely familiar. I think it might have been in some late PS2 or early PS3 era sports game I played but maybe it was just a thing I downloaded off an mp3 blog where someone posted it because it was featured on The OC or One Tree Hill or some shit and it will show up in this thread at some point when my iTunes decides that it is one of the 10 songs with the "UNSORTED BULLSHIT!!!" genre tag to add to my 10 song playlist for the week. The Outline - "Shotgun" (2006)Feel like a band that probably played on the Warped Tour in 2005 or 2006. The chorus of this is pretty goddamn great. hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 10, 2023 18:53:49 GMT -5
This does sound vaguely familiar. I think it might have been in some late PS2 or early PS3 era sports game I played but maybe it was just a thing I downloaded off an mp3 blog where someone posted it because it was featured on The OC or One Tree Hill or some shit and it will show up in this thread at some point when my iTunes decides that it is one of the 10 songs with the "UNSORTED BULLSHIT!!!" genre tag to add to my 10 song playlist for the week. The Outline - "Shotgun" (2006)Feel like a band that probably played on the Warped Tour in 2005 or 2006. The chorus of this is pretty goddamn great. hahahahahahahahahahahahaha I guess it was something I downloaded off an mp3 blog of songs from One Tree Hill or The OC as opposed to being a song that showed up in MLB The Show 2007.
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moimoi
AV Clubber
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Member is Online
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Post by moimoi on Dec 10, 2023 23:43:21 GMT -5
I think the only things I have to contribute to this conversation are: 1. the singer from Snowden sounds a lot like Will Toledo of Carseat Headrest fame; 2. I'm disappointed that the Subdebs track wasn't a Wire cover; and 3. these links might be helpful for a zine feature I'm working on surveying "landfill indie"
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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 11, 2023 0:29:42 GMT -5
I think the only things I have to contribute to this conversation are: 1. the singer from Snowden sounds a lot like Will Toledo of Carseat Headrest fame; 2. I'm disappointed that the Subdebs track wasn't a Wire cover; and 3. these links might be helpful for a zine feature I'm working on surveying "landfill indie" I honestly had the opposite thought regarding Subdebs and Wire. Like I knew of the Subdebs first and then got that Wire record later and was like, "I wonder if that good-ass song was a cover...oh it's not. That's too bad," but then learned that good-ass Henry Rollins "Ex Lion Tamer" song WAS a Wire cover so overall it was a push. Please post a link or a place where I can buy a thing once you've finished your eulogy to epitonic dot com and Hype Machine and assorted indie rock record label mp3 downloads. The more I do this stupid thing the more I feel like this era of music should probably have someone far more scholarly than I research or catalogue all this junk that populates various burned CD-Rs and forget external hard drives and the like.
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Post by ganews on Dec 11, 2023 13:15:56 GMT -5
these links might be helpful for a zine feature I'm working on surveying "landfill indie" That is something I would like to read.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Dec 11, 2023 13:23:14 GMT -5
I think the only things I have to contribute to this conversation are: 1. the singer from Snowden sounds a lot like Will Toledo of Carseat Headrest fame; 2. I'm disappointed that the Subdebs track wasn't a Wire cover; and 3. these links might be helpful for a zine feature I'm working on surveying "landfill indie" I’m assuming you’ve read this article, but just in case you haven’t I guess I’ve now posted it here.
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moimoi
AV Clubber
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Post by moimoi on Dec 11, 2023 16:29:38 GMT -5
I think the only things I have to contribute to this conversation are: 1. the singer from Snowden sounds a lot like Will Toledo of Carseat Headrest fame; 2. I'm disappointed that the Subdebs track wasn't a Wire cover; and 3. these links might be helpful for a zine feature I'm working on surveying "landfill indie" I’m assuming you’ve read this article, but just in case you haven’t I guess I’ve now posted it here. Yup, but I'm not ranking - I'm looking at NME cover artists and whether they deserved their career trajectories.
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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 13, 2023 3:40:58 GMT -5
Week 14
Here we go again. Ten more songs picked at random from a long forgotten external hard drive by an algorithm that I am then forced to listen to and write words about because if I don't, who else is going to write about long forgotten dance punk bands of 2007 and pop-punk covers of 80s hits from 2003?
The Jet Age - "Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose" (2006)
HOLY FUCK! THIS STARTS OFF WITH A WILD-ASS WAH-WAH GUITAR SOLO! The song then settles down into some pretty generic 2000s indie nonsense for the verses but HOLY SHIT THE WAH SOLO IS BACK! I THINK THAT'S THE CHORUS! JUST SOME DUDE GOING H.A.M. ON A TERRIBLE WAH WAH GUITAR SOLO!! YUP! THERE IS NO ACTUAL CHORUS JUST WAH GUITAR...oh fuck...THE DRUMMER'S PLAYING ANIMAL FROM THE MUPPETS DRUM CHAOS NOW TOO! I LOVE THIS DUMB FUCKIN' SONG!
Give Up The Ghost - "AM/PM' (2003)
FUCK YEAH RANDOM HARDCORE SHIT! I have no recollection of this band to be honest. I don't think they were someone I saw play with Snapcase or Earth Crisis in a dive in Upstate New York in 1996 or anything like that but if you like that kind of mid to late 90s Victory Records / Equal Visions ass Champion gym shorts hardcore you'll probably love this shit. Edited to Add: When I went looking for a video for this I couldn't find it but did find it listed as being by American Nightmare (not wrestleman Cody Rhodes). I guess at some point between the album this song was off of getting released and me downloading this mp3 off some random webpage the band was forced to change their name so the song here is the same one I currently have on my phone just with a minor difference on the album artwork (the one on my phone says Give Up The Ghost rather than American Nightmare).
Bis - "Dead Wrestlers" (2000)
Depending on the day you ask me I might, without a single shred of irony, tell you my favorite band of all time is Bis and if you asked me what about Bis I liked I would probably just send you this mp3. I'm pretty sure this was something I downloaded prior to the album it appears on actually being released because I know I bought this album if not the day it got released than very shortly after which probably makes this one of the older mp3s kicking around on this here external hard drive. Though that Jet Age song was a goddamn delight I'm going to give this the Greatest Song of All Time of the Week because it's one that I will 100% revisit again.
Crystal Skulls - "Heavy Sleeper" (2006)
It's got a harpsichord in it and a drum beat that's as slow as molasses. This is not my shit as it seems way too indebted to 60s hippie shit and that is not something I generally fuck around with.
Skye Sweetnam - "Sugar Guitar" (2004)
Um. This kind of rules ass. Miss Sweetnam very clearly had a record deal because of Avril Lavigne being successful but this is a million times better than any Avril Lavigne song I've ever heard. It's the same sort of punk tinged pop music that Avril found great success with but it works way better for me for whatever reason. The hooks are great and vocals are the right amount of bratty. It's a song you could listen to while speeding in a car or having a stylized fight with ninjas and that's honestly all I need out of a song.
Teenagersintokyo - "Very Vampyr" (2007)
I feel like it's been a couple weeks since a 2005-2007 dance punk song has shown up in one of these mixes so this feels a bit fresher than it might have been had that not been the case. It is, however, just a generic-ass dance punk song. There's a female vocalist which I guess sets it apart from most of the other synth and drum machine bands I've heard up to this point but other than that it's a random 2007-ass dance punk song.
Behold... The Arctopus - "You Will Be Reincarnated As An Imperial Attack Spaceturtle" (2006)
At least one of the guys in this band had subscriptions to multiple guitar player magazines and/or worked at Guitar Center. To be most forthright I don't really understand this kind of music. Like I get that it's proficentially executed but there's absolutely nothing in it to latch on to as it just goes from one random arpeggio riff to some random finger tapping thing to five seconds of chugga chugga riffage to random funk slap bass with no rhyme or reason. Yeah these guys are good at their instruments but I'm not going to remember a single godsdamned thing about this song by the time I finish typing these words and that doesn't just go for them but all this kind of stuff...your Yngwie Malmsteens and the like. Cool, you can play scales fast on your guitar. Can you write a hook or a chorus that an arenaload of people will bellow along to? No? Then get the fuck outta here.
The Sick Lipstick - "Teenage Robots" (2002)
Noise bullshit for freaks. It's decaying synths and feedback and a lady chirping about robots that are going to destroy everyone. There is zero skill involved in anything happening here and somehow this succeeds more at being a song than the bullshit I just listened to before this.
Polysics - "New Wave Jacket" (2004)
What in the fuck is this? I have no idea what the singers are singing. I mean beside the robot that moans, "It's my new wave jacket," the singing's in some other language but not one I have any knowledge of. The music is wild. Like 1950s rock n' roll guitar mixed with Devo mixed with a 1987 Nintendo game soundtrack. I don't hate this. Edited to Add: When I went looking for the video it became clear to me that the other language they're singing in is likely Japanese as they seem to be a Japanese band.
Truckasauras - "Super Copter" (2008)
This is 100% just the music for a Nintendo game that never existed with samples of 80s action TV dialogue (shit like Airwolf) over it at times. I am positive I downloaded this just because Truckasauras is a great name for a band. The song is not terrible but there are better songs that do the "sounds like a Nintendo game that you never played" thing better than this.
Next Week... So next week I'm doing something slightly different. Among the thousand plus songs that are on this external hard drive there are a number of Christmas / holiday songs done by bands no one remembers in the late 90s to mid 2000s. So I am going to pick ten of them to listen to next week instead of just letting iTunes randomly pick a bunch of mp3s I downloaded off the Saddle Creek website in 2004. If you're adverse to ten covers of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas*" skip next week's column and come back the following week for more of bellowing about ironic punk-pop covers of hits from the 80s and shit.
* It's not literally going to be 10 covers of that song.
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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 21, 2023 2:10:16 GMT -5
Week 15 - The Holiday SpecialSome weeks back a song I believed to be a Christmas song showed up in one of the randomly selected playlists of songs I listen to and write about here. I decided then to remove it from the list and create my own list of holiday tunes to listen to and review the week of Christmas. These songs, save for the one that caused me to think up this holiday special, were not selected by iTunes but rather by me searching through the UNSORTED BULLSHIT genre tag all the songs off that there external hard drive have for anything Christmas related. There were more but these were the first ten I came upon so these are the ten we get this year. If I'm still working my way through this junk at Christmas 2024 you'll get the rest of them. Anyway without further ado here's some random indie bands playing Christmas songs. Local H - "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (1997)This is one of the few secular Christmas songs I don't really hate and if there's a single Christmas song that is perfectly suited for a quiet-loud-quiet-loud 90s alt-rock cover version this is it. The Local H lads do a pretty good job here and the fuzzed out outro bit is legitimately great. Sloppy Seconds - "Hooray For Santa Claus" (1992)I don't know why there aren't more covers of the theme song from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. The movie might be utter shit but this song is legitimately a great little power pop song and I wish someone better than Sloppy Seconds were the ones covering it. Deerhoof - "The Little Drummer Boy" (2007)This is a shockingly straightforward cover from noted weirdos Deerhoof. Like you could put this on while your normie family members were about an no one would really bat an eyelash. They were smart with their cover too and got out while the getting was good. I mean who wants to hear multiple verses and choruses of "The Little Drummer Boy?" Melt-Banana - "White Christmas" (1996)This is the opposite of the Deerhoof cover I just wrote about. There is absolutely nothing about this that jumps out and is like, "Yup...this is 'White Christmas.'" until the last minute or so when the melody everyone knows shows up as an outro. Prior to that it's all blast beats and noise and Melt-Banana's vocalist chirping sounds (that upon subsequent listens do actually seem to be at least some of the actual lyrics of the song). Thunderbirds Are Now! - "Christmas In Hollis" (2002)www.brooklynvegan.com/christmas-music/Wonky synthpunk cover of the RUN DMC jam. It's an okay cover I guess but I'd rather listen to the original. Also because I couldn't find this on YouTube or Spotify or anything I ended up finding the blog I probably downloaded this off of back in 2006 or whatever so you too can download random Christmas MP3s and forget about them for 17 years. The Pipettes - "White Christmas" (2005)I don't like the idea of Milhouse having two "White Christmases" in a single 10 song playlist of forgotten MP3 downloads. I don't know who the Pipettes are but this straight up sounds like normal-ass Christmas music you'd hear alongside Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra while at the supermarket in December. There's nothing weird or novel about it. The arrangements are traditional. The singers can carry a melody. The instrumentation is normal. Another one you could play in front of your aunt who thinks there's a war on Christmas without her going off on a rant about some Fox news holiday talking point. Deerhoof - "Xmas Tree" (2001)Not particularly Christmasy but the chorus does mention a Christmas tree. It's a fine song and I probably should have just listened to it a few of weeks ago when it popped up in a regular shuffle instead of moving it to a Christmas playlist and coming up with this whole holiday special thing in order to justify reviewing it. The Knife - "Christmas Reindeer" (2006)This song is stupid. The music is terrible drum machine noise, fart synths, and jingle bells. The lyrics are dumb and the song is too goddamn long. Like I wrote everything I had to say about this song and it went on for another three and a half aimless minutes. Bad song. This one gets the first Annual Shitty Christmas Song Lump of Coal Award. Los Straightjackets - "A Marshmellow World" (2002)I'm pretty sure I first heard these cats on Conan O'Brien back in the 90s or early 00s. They play mostly instrumental surf rock tunes and honestly if you're putting out an album of largely secular Christmas music doing instrumental surf rock covers isn't a bad way to go. The song is recognizable but is different enough that it kind of stands out among all the jingle bells and hollys and jollys and the like. This is another one that I don't think anyone would get up in arms over since it's just music. The arrangement, while twangy as fuck, isn't weird or off-putting and no one's doing punker puking their guts up singing or anything. It's fine. Pedro the Lion - "I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day" (2002)This has got to be one of the most depressing songs ever recorded. I mean the song itself's kind of a bummer to begin with and then you add David Bazan to the mix?! You got a seasonal depression going baby! I also gotta say that lyrically the turn this thing takes about halfway through is wild! Like it starts off innocuous enough with bells and other holiday shit and then suddenly it's about there being no peace of Earth and how hate is so powerful and there are sleeping gods and shit. Lyrically it turns into the final act of a JRPG and it's kind of wild for it.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Dec 22, 2023 13:32:12 GMT -5
Week 15 - The Holiday SpecialSome weeks back a song I believed to be a Christmas song showed up in one of the randomly selected playlists of songs I listen to and write about here. I decided then to remove it from the list and create my own list of holiday tunes to listen to and review the week of Christmas. These songs, save for the one that caused me to think up this holiday special, were not selected by iTunes but rather by me searching through the UNSORTED BULLSHIT genre tag all the songs off that there external hard drive have for anything Christmas related. There were more but these were the first ten I came upon so these are the ten we get this year. If I'm still working my way through this junk at Christmas 2024 you'll get the rest of them. Anyway without further ado here's some random indie bands playing Christmas songs. Local H - "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (1997)This is one of the few secular Christmas songs I don't really hate and if there's a single Christmas song that is perfectly suited for a quiet-loud-quiet-loud 90s alt-rock cover version this is it. The Local H lads do a pretty good job here and the fuzzed out outro bit is legitimately great. Sloppy Seconds - "Hooray For Santa Claus" (1992)I don't know why there aren't more covers of the theme song from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. The movie might be utter shit but this song is legitimately a great little power pop song and I wish someone better than Sloppy Seconds were the ones covering it. Deerhoof - "The Little Drummer Boy" (2007)This is a shockingly straightforward cover from noted weirdos Deerhoof. Like you could put this on while your normie family members were about an no one would really bat an eyelash. They were smart with their cover too and got out while the getting was good. I mean who wants to hear multiple verses and choruses of "The Little Drummer Boy?" Melt-Banana - "White Christmas" (1996)This is the opposite of the Deerhoof cover I just wrote about. There is absolutely nothing about this that jumps out and is like, "Yup...this is 'White Christmas.'" until the last minute or so when the melody everyone knows shows up as an outro. Prior to that it's all blast beats and noise and Melt-Banana's vocalist chirping sounds (that upon subsequent listens do actually seem to be at least some of the actual lyrics of the song). Thunderbirds Are Now! - "Christmas In Hollis" (2002)www.brooklynvegan.com/christmas-music/Wonky synthpunk cover of the RUN DMC jam. It's an okay cover I guess but I'd rather listen to the original. Also because I couldn't find this on YouTube or Spotify or anything I ended up finding the blog I probably downloaded this off of back in 2006 or whatever so you too can download random Christmas MP3s and forget about them for 17 years. The Pipettes - "White Christmas" (2005)I don't like the idea of Milhouse having two "White Christmases" in a single 10 song playlist of forgotten MP3 downloads. I don't know who the Pipettes are but this straight up sounds like normal-ass Christmas music you'd hear alongside Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra while at the supermarket in December. There's nothing weird or novel about it. The arrangements are traditional. The singers can carry a melody. The instrumentation is normal. Another one you could play in front of your aunt who thinks there's a war on Christmas without her going off on a rant about some Fox news holiday talking point. Deerhoof - "Xmas Tree" (2001)Not particularly Christmasy but the chorus does mention a Christmas tree. It's a fine song and I probably should have just listened to it a few of weeks ago when it popped up in a regular shuffle instead of moving it to a Christmas playlist and coming up with this whole holiday special thing in order to justify reviewing it. The Knife - "Christmas Reindeer" (2006)This song is stupid. The music is terrible drum machine noise, fart synths, and jingle bells. The lyrics are dumb and the song is too goddamn long. Like I wrote everything I had to say about this song and it went on for another three and a half aimless minutes. Bad song. This one gets the first Annual Shitty Christmas Song Lump of Coal Award. Los Straightjackets - "A Marshmellow World" (2002)I'm pretty sure I first heard these cats on Conan O'Brien back in the 90s or early 00s. They play mostly instrumental surf rock tunes and honestly if you're putting out an album of largely secular Christmas music doing instrumental surf rock covers isn't a bad way to go. The song is recognizable but is different enough that it kind of stands out among all the jingle bells and hollys and jollys and the like. This is another one that I don't think anyone would get up in arms over since it's just music. The arrangement, while twangy as fuck, isn't weird or off-putting and no one's doing punker puking their guts up singing or anything. It's fine. Pedro the Lion - "I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day" (2002)This has got to be one of the most depressing songs ever recorded. I mean the song itself's kind of a bummer to begin with and then you add David Bazan to the mix?! You got a seasonal depression going baby! I also gotta say that lyrically the turn this thing takes about halfway through is wild! Like it starts off innocuous enough with bells and other holiday shit and then suddenly it's about there being no peace of Earth and how hate is so powerful and there are sleeping gods and shit. Lyrically it turns into the final act of a JRPG and it's kind of wild for it. Viking, do you hate all of The Knife's music or just "Reindeer"?
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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 27, 2023 20:32:25 GMT -5
Viking, do you hate all of The Knife's music or just "Reindeer"? "Christmas Reindeer" is the only song by them that I think I've ever heard. There's a chance that at some point I heard another song by them that I have forgotten about but this is the only song by them I have added to my iTunes so it's pretty unlikely there was ever any other song by them I was exposed to.
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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 27, 2023 23:20:24 GMT -5
Week 16We're wrapping up 2023 with ten more songs from the mid 2000s by bands no one ever really gave a shit about. Funeral for a Friend - "The Art of American Football" (2003)Save for the singer's screechy voice this kind of rules. He's less annoying during the choruses but man alive is he obnoxious during the verses. Fuck do these riffs rule about 80 score different types of ass. I would 100% get pulled over for speeding if I were to listen to this while driving a car. Schizo - "버스 안에서 (Feat. Kim Hyun-sook)" (2007)I need to explain how weird conceptually this is for people that haven't spent long periods of time interacting with fringe Korean popular culture from the last 30 years. "버스 안에서" (On the Bus) was a dance pop song from 1996. Schizo is a Korean nu metal band. Kim Hyunsuk is a comedienne/actress. This song is basically like if Limp Bizkit's cover of "Faith" or that Orgy cover of "Blue Monday" also had Kathy Griffin singing on it for no real reason. Nothing about this song existing makes a lick of sense but I don't hate it. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood" (2005)I can't remember whether or not I've written about Clap Your Hands Say Yeah here yet or not. I've definitely written about bands with impossibly long band names whose jock Pitchfork was briefly all over before deciding they were actually mid as hell. These cats definitely slot into that sub-category of bands and frankly I don't understand it. I mean I get the course correction, "These guys aren't that good," part of Pitchfork's response to them (because they are not that good) but I don't see anything in this song that would beget the earlier "Greatest new band of all the times!!!" initial hype. There is nothing here interesting or novel or done with any sort of greater skill than a hundred thousand other bands that existed on college radio station playlists from 1985 to 2004. A decidedly mediocre indie rock song that. 7.0. Schoolyard Heroes - "Dude, Where's My Skin?" (2007)This fucking rules. Dracula-ass theremin shits. Punk rock riffs. A lady singing about creepy shit. These cats are another band that I'm going to look into now because of this one randomly downloaded mp3 from nearly 20 years ago. Cephalic Carnage - "Dying Will Be The Death of Me" (2005)Pretty generic-ass "metalcore" tune that I gained a greater appreciation for when I went googling to find the year of release and learned that it's apparently a song that's mocking metalcore tropes of the time. The part where a dude other than the dude that's been growling the entire song suddenly sings, "Dying!!! Will be the death of me!" is kind of hilarious and there's some good skronky guitar noise towards the end. Ceremony - "Mothers and Fathers" (2007)
I had to check whether or not I somehow ended up with a bad file here because this is a minute long and stops like right at the point the song seems to begin. The Blind Shake - "Calling All Horses" (2005)This, not Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, is the kind of "indie rock" I fuck with. It's not anything special but it's loud and noisy and fast paced and never wears out its welcome. Good shit. The Utica Club Natural Carbonation Band - "The Utica Club Natural Carbonation Band Beer Drinking Song" (1967)This is one of the few songs here I remember the exact source of. Back in the early-2000s WFMU had a thing on their webpage known as the 365 Days Project where every day over the course of the year they would upload some weird, off-beat song and this was one of the things I downloaded off their page and actually hung onto. A lot of the stuff the posted wasn't good so I'd listen to it once and delete it but this one is kind of great. A wild-ass psychedelic jingle for Utica Club Beer this song is absolutely tremendous and not just because Utica Club the shit my buddies and I would underage drink when we wanted something "better" than Natty Ice or Milwaukee's Beast. Edited to Add: It looks like the WFMU 365 Days Project is still up. Here's the page for this song. The Oohlas - "Small Parts" (2006)I guess a dude from Everclear is in this band. I had no idea but discovered that factoid when looking for the release date. I don't know if it's way the vocalist lady is singing, the way the guitar sounds or what but this kind of reminds me of Metric. This is a pretty good indie-pop song and based off the strength of this song I'm probably going to explore their discography a bit more. EDITED TO ADD! For some reason one song didn't copy over to my phone when I added the playlist for this week. Since I was never good at the math I didn't realize I'd only written about 9 songs until I got home and went to clear the playlist for a new batch of tunes. Here's the song that didn't get copied. The Softies - "Sleep Away Your Troubles" (2000)This song bums me out. Makes me think about paths not taken and what my life might have been if I had. Young love. Stupid motherfuckin' feelings and shit. I'm not crying. You're crying.
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Post by Jean Luc de Lemur on Dec 31, 2023 11:34:34 GMT -5
The Knife is extremely my thing so…do with that what you will.
My mom was also really into Eels in the mid-aughts, which maybe is a weird band to get into as a fifty year-old woman? I heard a lot of them in the car but probably couldn’t pick them out of an audio lineup today.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Dec 31, 2023 13:10:03 GMT -5
The Knife is extremely my thing so…do with that what you will. My mom was also really into Eels in the mid-aughts, which maybe is a weird band to get into as a fifty year-old woman? I heard a lot of them in the car but probably couldn’t pick them out of an audio lineup today. I remember Novocaine for the Soul, but I couldn't name a second song they did.
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 4, 2024 7:43:29 GMT -5
Week 17It's a new year but over here we're still dealing with the same old bullshit by which, of course, I mean random-ass mp3s I downloaded in the 2000s. So let's strap in and enjoy ten more songs that no one remembers from bands that were never popular. Kafka - "The Shining Dark" (2004)Remember all those trip-hop adjacent female fronted alt-rock bands that were briefly a thing in the mid-90s? Dubstar and the like? Korean alt-rockers, Kafka remember. This song would slot very nicely alongside "Stars" and the Sneaker Pimps' "Six Underground" and other stuff like that. I kind of dig that stuff in small doses so this is decent mix tape/playlist fodder in my book. Thao With The Get Down Stay Down - "When We Swam" (2009)I don't have anything to say about this. It sounds like a bunch of other late 2000s indie shit. It's not bad or anything but this is not the kind of song that really fires me up or anything. Urban Legends - "The World Is Strange" (2007)I think this might be a Thermals side project. If it's not the dude sounds EXACTLY like the dude from the Thermals. Other than that it's power-pop that ocassionally has a goofy little organ part. It's fine. Communiqué - "Cross Your Heart" (2003)I dig the guitar riff in this. The whole thing kind of reminds me of The Killers circa "Mr. Brightside" but I think that actually came out a year later. Still if you dig that particular style of indie you'll probably like this. The Kingdom Flying Club - "Time's No Eraser" (2003)Shitty piano nonsense and a sad sack singing about love lost and muses or some fucking bullshit. Random space noise synths show up in the middle but still the shitty piano-man bullshit continues and this fuckin' dope sings about being sad. Exercise - "We Don't Change" (2002)www.learningcurverecords.com/mediaThank god for Exercise whoever they are for getting things back on track after that last dumbass song. This is 100% the sort of fucking bullshit I'm into. Noisy guitars. Singers who can't sing. Bludgeoning drums. Chokebore - "Ciao L.A. (New Version)" (2002)soundcloud.com/chokebore/ciao-l-a-alternate-recordingFUCK YES!!!! CHOKEBORE MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!! YEAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! This is a different version of "Ciao L.A." then the one that appeared on It's a Miracle. I think I might honestly like this version a bit more than the one that's on an actual album. Let me go check. Yeah I think I do actually like this version a little bit more. The album cut's got some noisier guitars which are pretty great but the piano in the "new version" during the choruses adds something that is just *chef's kiss*. Flobots - "Handlebars" (2007)What in the fuck is this nonsense? This motherfucker's rapping about a platypus and making comic books with his friends. Oh great now there's muted trumpets. Fuckin' nonsense. Is this the same thing as 21 Pilots? Dorkass guy is yelling about circa 2007 politics like he thinks he's Rage Against the Machine now. This is laughably bad. Julie Ruin - "Radical or Pro-Parental" (1998)Between Bikini Kill ending and Le Tigre starting Kathleen Hanna put out some weirdo solo album that's just her and a drum machine and guitars. This is a song off that album. I'd be shocked if this wasn't self-recorded on a four track in her bedroom because it has the same fidelity as every shitty drum machine and guitar and voice tape I made on a four track in my bedroom in 1997-1998. It's pretty good though. Cat Power - "Nude As The News" (1996)This is another instance where this particular mp3 is just a holdover from a time when I didn't own the album it came from but I do own What Would the Community Think? and have probably listened to this song a thousand plus times in my life and honestly it still gives me chills. This is legitimately a perfect song. The guitar riffs? Great. Vocals? Perfect. Lyrics? Outstanding. I absolutely love me some Chokebore and on any other week they would hands down be the Greatest Song of All Time of the Week but this week we got a legit Greatest Song of All Time (without the of the week qualifier) so I'm going to have to give it to "Nude As The News."
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Rainbow Rosa
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Jan 4, 2024 14:40:32 GMT -5
How many bands named Kafka are there, do you think? I really remember liking a post-punk act from... um... Albania maybe...? with that name that I stumbled upon on Spotify a decade ago.
I've actually heard a couple of these songs before - I listened to that "Julie Ruin" record because my much cooler friends decided to give it a spin during a recentish road trip. It definitely isn't very good - mostly a dry run for Le Tigre's actually good self-titled LP, imo. "Handlebars" I also remember - in true 2000s fashion I came across it because my brother and I were obsessed with the video game Line Rider - do you remember Line Rider? I feel like this was one of those early viral video games that everyone forgot about - and there was a particular video of someone doing a very intricate Line Rider track where "Handlebars" was the backing music. I think you are correct that Twenty One Pilots was kind of cribbing the Flobots' whole vibe, but actually you are wrong because cringe as it is to say so, especially if you look at that horrific music video, I think "Handlebars" kinda rules? That trumpet solo is great too, don't be a hater.
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Rainbow Rosa
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Jan 4, 2024 14:47:32 GMT -5
Although in true one hit wonder they never recorded another track worth listening to. That being said, you will perhaps be excited to learn that they sued Logan Paul for writing an even worse song that sampled "Handlebars" as a metaphor for sexual conquest, leading them to write, oh lord, a LOGAN PAUL DISS TRACK
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 4, 2024 19:01:06 GMT -5
Although in true one hit wonder they never recorded another track worth listening to. That being said, you will perhaps be excited to learn that they sued Logan Paul for writing an even worse song that sampled "Handlebars" as a metaphor for sexual conquest, leading them to write, oh lord, a LOGAN PAUL DISS TRACK
While I don't think this or "Handlebars" were any good as music I will give them props for beefin' with someone they and I think a lot of other people (myself included) think is a scumbag.
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Post by William T. Goat, Esq. on Jan 14, 2024 12:06:50 GMT -5
I always thought the Flobots video was pretty powerful. I see them as more akin to Cake than 21 Pilots.
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Post by Nudeviking on Jan 15, 2024 23:36:48 GMT -5
Week 18
I was laid low with a medical malady last week and thus didn't end up posting this thing. I honestly wrote up half of this on my phone whilst sitting in the waiting room of a medical facility waiting to get jabbed in the ass with a needle for the umpteenth time that week but never got around to finishing it up or posting it until now. So here are 10 more songs from the mid-2000s for your enjoyment.
Clinic - "Walking With Thee" (2002)
This is an ancient-ass mp3 that I probably downloaded off Napster back in the day. I know I had this on a burned CD-R at some point in college because it was something I downloaded before I even had a mp3 player that wasn't Winamp and that was the only way I could listen to it if I didn't want to turn on a desktop computer. Anyway I think this song is pretty good (I'm a sucker for some shitty rock organ) but I don't think it ever caused me to seek out anything else by these cats. Maybe I should because this is pretty good and they have like a billion albums now.
Soul Coughing - "Circles" (1998)
Another ancient-ass mp3 here that I am 100% sure predated mp3 blogs and random record label sample mp3s and came from Napster. Soul Coughing were one of those bands in the 90s that I didn't hate but I wasn't really all that interested in either. Like if they came on the radio I wouldn't change the station but I also wasn't going to spend $18.99 plus tax on a CD. I had one friend in high school that fucked with them so I heard that album with "Super Bon Bon" a bunch whenever I was in his car doing high school bullshit but this is not from that album. It's the only Soul Coughing song I currently have in my possession and I don't really know why. I guess at age 19 or whatever I thought it was good enough for a cheap-as-free download off Napster. In 2024 I guess it's okay but much like in 1996 it's not something that is going to make me seek out other Soul Coughing.
The Unicorns - "The Clap" (2003)
This is the only Unicorns song I like. I heard this and bought the album that begot it and hated every other bullshit song on that disc. Bunch of dork anti-pop Casio keyboard demo button nonsense. This on the other hand fuckin' rocks. I'd love for a better band to cover this tune.
Cursive - "The Recluse" (2003)
Early aughts emo bullshit baby! This one is something that I think I downloaded in the brief period between the album being released and me buying it because it was 2003 and it was easier to just keep a downloaded mp3 than to rip a CD myself. Anyway this is another song from an album I own in full so I guess it did its job and enticed me to buy an album in full back in 2003. It's a pretty good jam. Cursive were a pretty great band back when I paid attention to them. I have no idea if they still exist or if they're any good anymore but back when I was in college? Boy howdy did I listen to them too much!
Mansun - "Wide Open Space" (1997)
Feel like this week is Napster Week over at the ol' Nudeviking Reviews MP3s From a Long Forgotten External Hard Drive because this is another one I downloaded from that once august file sharing site. Unlike "Circles" I actually know why I downloaded this one. In the late 90s MTV had some show where they'd show "new" music videos and folks would vote on which song should get put into regular rotation or something. If memory serves correctly this one showed up on that show (but did not win). It's decent enough late-90s Brit-shit I guess but at the time Radiohead was not yet 100% bleep-bloops and Blur were firmly in their "Song 2" guitar-rock prime so I don't really know why someone in America would need a Mansun which I suppose is why they didn't win that trial by jury show on MTV.
Nada Surf - "Always Love" (2005)
It's weird to me that Nada Surf had a continued career beyond "Popular" and that they kind of continued to be a good little power pop band. They're not reinventing the wheel on "Always Love" but it's a pretty great little song all the same. Decent riffs. Terrific vocal hook during the choruses. A+ song.
Sterling Says - "Instakill" (2008)
Wah-guitar garage rock epic about getting insta-kills in AD&D. This fucking rules. The lyrical theme is great. The guitar heroics are great. The fake-out ending is great. The only thing not amazing about this is the fact that it sounds like it was recorded on a boombox in someone's basement. EDITED TO ADD: When I went looking for a video of this song I discovered that it was featured on a split single with the Kate the Pest song that very briefly the Greatest Song of All Time of the Week back in Week 8 of this thing which makes that the greatest split 7" single of all time of the week and also the first album to be featured in full in this column.
Bad Religion - "In the Night" (1982/2004)
This is the 2004 remastered version. I don't know how different it is from the original 1982 version because it still sounds pretty bad recording-wise. The song itself is fine. It sounds like a billion other early 80s west coast punk songs so if you're into that sort of thing you'll like this.
The Evens - "No Money" (2006)
This was a post-Fugazi Ian MacKaye band. It's okay but kind of lacks the intensity of a lot of his earlier bands. I don't blame him for wanting to take it easy and just do something chill with his wife but it's not really what I'm looking for from something that has Ian MacKaye's name in the linear notes.
Swing Kids - "Forty Three Seconds" (1997)
This song's title is a lie. It's four minutes and twenty-three seconds long but you know what? I don't give a single shit because all four minutes and twenty-three seconds fuckin' rule. I think Swing Kids might be my favorite Justin Pearson related band because it has all the fury and intensity of his later bands while also retaining more normal-ass song composition conventions that weren't really part of bands like the Locust or Head Wound City.
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Rainbow Rosa
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Jan 16, 2024 0:10:35 GMT -5
Soul Coughing may not be the best alt-rock act of the 1990s, but they certainly are the best alt-rock act of the 1990s to have an album named after Suzanne Vega's daughter (because her then-husband was pals with their producer). And "Circles" is definitely the best song that sounds exactly like Smash Mouth's "All Star" but minus the hook or memorable lyrics or any sort of reason to remember the song exists. (Which is a recurring theme with these random indie records - see my comments on Grandaddy from the previous page)
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