They Might Be Giants, "Nanobots"
The title track of their 2013 album, which was the second album of a little renaissance from TMBG. Post-children's albums, they put together two outstanding records, bursting with ideas and shimmering tunes. Join Us ranks in the first ranks of their albums, and Nanobots isn't far behind. I think their next couple albums suffered a bit from attenuated creativity, as the Dial-a-Song project seemed stretch them a bit thin, but these two albums are really top work.
The Tape-Beatles, "More Difficult"
Part of the "pluderphonics" scene, where artists assembled their compositions entirely out of other sounds, the Tape-Beatles were underground darlings who largely made unreleasable music. Heirs to the tradition of musique concrète and pranksters like Negativland, they were pretty much dedicated to surreal goofs and disquieting juxtapositions. Some of it did make its way out on deep underground labels that weren't worth suing. It's pretty different from, you know, regular music, and I really enjoy this kind of thing. These days, the plunderphonics banner is largely carried by mash-up artists like Girl Talk and Neil Cicierega, and I still love it.
Propagandhi, "Chomsky Being Smart"
Hell, I guess we're just doing weird shit today! A little bit of spoken word in Where Quantity Is Job #1, a comp of singles, unreleased stuff, compilation appearences, and the usual detritus from a punk band's career.
J Church, "No Surprise"
One of my favorite tunes from my favorite J Church album, Prophylaxis came out when I was 19, and we form attachments to albums at that time of our life that can be quite durable. Is this really a better album than plenty of other punk records that came out before or since? YES OF COURSE FUCK YOU FOR THINKING OTHERWISE
They Might Be Giants, "I'm Def"
OK, fuck it, we're done here today.