Introduction
Five Songs, 11/8/2019
Baroness

Five Songs, 11/8/2019

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WE'RE BACK AT IT! HIT IT, PLEXASAURUS REX!

Baroness, "Rays on Pinion"

This is how the first Baroness album opens up. While they're usually grouped with metal, and in particular often brought up in the same breath as Mastodon, they're not really the same thing. Yeah, there is some serious riffage in here, but the separation between this and, say, some of noise rock or post-punk isn't exactly clear. Music categorizing is a sloppy thing, y'all. Anyway, this album is good! Listen to it!

Olivia Tremor Control, "Memories of Jacqueline 1906"

I think it's easy to hate a band that names a record Music From the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle just on principle. But like the other Elephant 6 bands, they could crank out some catchy tunes, when they weren't busy getting in their own way. Sometimes the tweeness would be exhausting, sometimes the artsy fuckin' around would be deeply irritating, but sometimes? It hits you just right.

Stephen Malkmus, "The Hook"

I never really gave this album a shot. I was furious with Malkmus for breaking up Pavement, which is a really stupid thing to think, but in my defense, I was pretty stupid. Anyway, if the band was falling apart, why would I want them to stick together and make shitty albums? At any rate, by the time this album arrived, a couple years after Terror Twilight, I was good and mad and ready to just hate it to death. "You can totally tell that Kannberg isn't there," I surely huffed to myself. By the time I got less stupid (which was never), I hadn't actually really gone back and given this album a fair shake. This is a decent song?

Mix Master Mike, "Ice Age"

I love the way the rhyming comes in so gradually on this track.

Outkast, "Morris Brown"

I think I've discussed Idlewild in the past, but even though the record is a misstep, there are some fine tunes on it, such as this one.

Joshua Buergel
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