« Video: Portishead - "Machine Gun" | Main | Denver's Mile High Music festival is a snoozer »
March 19, 2008
Retrohump: Filling the Back Catalog
Jeff's still filling out his bracket (The Butler/South Alabama pick is absolutely killing him.), so today you get a retro-substitute. It probably would have been nice, on the eve of the NCAA Tournament's first weekend, to put together some sort of Retrohump/basketball tie-in post. Instead, I'm going to use this opportunity to talk about some of the lesser-expected music that I've been keen to lately. With last minute duties, you invariably get narcissism.
Thanks to eMusic's Verizon-like policy towards monthly download allotments, I've managed to collect a lot of albums that had previously fallen into the category of: "I should get that someday." Some are albums that I've had before but lost or ruined (Trompe le Monde is still waiting in the queue), some are albums I'm giving fair shot to after never really favoring them before (Jesus Lizard, American Music Club), some became instant favorites (the Wrens), and some are albums I'd never thought I'd own (Hello, The Pleasure Principle!). Here are some that have lately been in heavy rotation at the MS.com southern headquarters.
Fugazi - "Break"
The song starts after about two minutes of stage banter, but then we get the opening track from 1998's End Hits. The sound quality isn't the greatest, but that seems to be par for the course for Fugazi concerts.
Jawbox - "Reel"
Another '90s D.C. area post hardcore act, albeit a lesser known one. This comes off of Jawbox's highly regarded 1994 release, For Your Own Special Sweetheart.
Archers of Loaf - "Web in Front"
I came to this band retroactively, introduced as "the guy from Crooked Fingers other band." Eric Bachmann's two acts couldn't be more dissimilar: Fingers are all orchestrated neo-Americana, and Archers are categorical lo-fi indie rock.
The Extra Glenns - "Baltimore"
For all intents and purposes, the Extra Glenns are really just John Darnielle's excuse to add electric guitar sections to his songs, in this case they're thanks to Nothing Painted Blue's (another eMusic queue) Franklin Bruno. Thematically, "Baltimore" fits right into the "Going to..." series of the Mountain Goats songs.
Circulatory System – “The Lovely Universe”
I wear my affinity for the Elephant 6 Collective plainly on my sleeve, so it was only a matter of time, really, before I developed my crush on Will Cullen Hart's pet project. As seen in the video, Hart attempts to get all of member badges in one fell swoop (Use of woodwinds unconventional to pop music - check.), almost as though he knew this would be a one-off.
Pharcyde – “Passin’ Me By”
A Stuff White People Like post waiting to happen. Pharcyde come in third to A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul in the rankings of early '90s alternative hip-hop, but are funnier than either one. In a move that probably drove Dave Klein nuts, Pharcyde titled their first album Bizarre Ride 2. "Passin' Me By" was the second single from that album.
Posted by Randall Monty at March 19, 2008 09:03 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.merryswankster.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/1491
Comments
the Pleasure Principle is great.
Posted by: Jeff K at March 19, 2008 10:46 AM
Pharcyde will always be AOK in my book, son; "Runnin' Away" is one of this white guy's favorites of the whole rap genre. Also, there were some good tracks on Jawbox's Novelty, the follow-up to Special Sweetheart. I can lay some of it on you if you want.
Posted by: david at March 19, 2008 12:48 PM
I suppose Jawbox should technically fall under the category of albums I used to like but had forgotten about, so send 'em along.
The whole Archers album is better than expected, though.
Posted by: Randall Monty at March 19, 2008 03:45 PM
