Mudhoney, "Endless Yesterday"
Mudhoney is never really going to sound mature, not with Mark Arm sounding like he does. But as they went along (this is from their seventh album), they picked up a lot of moves that make them sound so much more put together. I mean, this is pretty damn melodic for a Mudhoney tune! There's noise here that doesn't come from a guitar!
The Pietasters, "Freak Show"
Hey, speaking of mature, the lyrics to this are really a model for how to handle sensitive subjects carefully.
Mento Buru, "Move It Girl"
There were a lot of ska bands in the third wave that were one-and-done acts on Moon Records, Mento Buru among that number. There's nothing that particularly distinguishes No Dancing, Please! other than ugly album art. It's fine, but forgettable. The more horn-driven end of the scene never really caught on more broadly, and Moon was not doing great by this point, so it makes sense we never heard from this band again.
Drowningman, "My First Restraining Order"
Early metalcore band Drowningman are a band that was largely off my radar, as metalcore wasn't (and still isn't) really my thing. I ended up with this record as a result of a Hydra Head grab bag, and guess what: metalcore still isn't really my thing.
Thee Speaking Canaries, "Houses and Houses of Perfectness"
Pittsburgh supergroup (can I say that when nobody really knows these bands?) from the mid-90s, Thee Speaking Canaries featured Don Caballero drummer Damon Che on guitar and vocals, and Karl Hendricks (of his eponymous trio) moving from guitar to bass. Given how often I saw those two bands (often on the same bill!), it made total sense to me for them to get together to make some tunes. And they were excellent! I have two records from them, but I have the first record only on vinyl, and no way to digitize it. I wonder where it is, actually. Looking on Discogs, it turns out that there is at least one other record from them (albeit without Hendricks) that I should probably track down.