Conor Oberst, "Get - Well - Cards"
Conor Oberst is known primarily as the guy fronting Bright Eyes, a band that I never got into. Like, I don't even have one of their albums in the collections. No real reason, mind you. Hell, they might even be a band I'd like. So, how did I end up with one of his solo records? Excellent question! Uh, well, I'm VERY stupid, and incredibly impressionable. So, I'm sure at some point I read a positive review and thought to myself "maybe it's time to try out some of this guy's music"! What do I think? I honestly had forgotten I owned it.
I guess maybe I should keep skipping Bright Eyes.
Souls of Mischief, "4th Floor Freaks"
The debut Souls of Mischief record was great, but they never really captured that same magic on subsequent releases. By this, their third record, there wasn't a lot left in the tank.
Pussy Galore, "Pussy Stomp"
There's garage rock as a genre, bands that sound like they mostly practiced in a garage and play raw rock. Then there's garage rock like this, that sounds like it was actually recorded in a garage. It might have been!
Samiam, "Slumbering"
I don't think I've ever regretted listening to Samiam. I mean, I don't really regret listening to anything, but whenever I listen to Samiam, I just think to myself "that was a good call". At a tidy 2:18, this is a nice little bit of melodic punk. Good stuff!
The Dead Kennedys, "Jock-O-Rama"
Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables is rightly lauded as the Kennedys' best work, but Frankenchrist was their first album that really clicked with me. I think the relatively slower pace of many of the songs made it more accessible to 14-year-old Josh. I wasn't quite ready for the more pure hardcore of the earlier stuff.