Nation of Ulysses, "The Sound of Young America"
I need more art punk in my life. Nation of Ulysses was unafraid to just go for it, with their over-the-top political polemics, the atonal honking of the trumpet, the odd song structures, or whatever other pretensions they were willing to put on. They also carried it off with straight faces, which just helped carry things. As I get older, I'm happier with bands that staked out their own territory. Nobody really sounds like the Nation of Ulysses, and that's really valuable.
The Kinks, "Autumn Almanac"
I'm wildly unqualified to do any of this shit, but I'm especially unqualified to add anything to the body of writing on well-known bands like the Kinks. I do no research here, I'm unearthing no novel information. What am I going to say here? "Something Else By The Kinks is real good." Yes, that's exactly what I'm going to say.
The Mekons, "I Love Apple"
At least with the Mekons, maybe there's somebody reading this who hasn't really listened to them. (Nobody is reading this.) This is sort of the last record of their Big Rock period, when they were making pretty straightforward records, which nonetheless sounded pretty good. I Love Mekons isn't their best record from that period, but it's worth listening to if you like their stuff.
Edna's Goldfish, "Sunrise to Sunset"
[looks sadly at "Days Since Last Listless, Anonymous Third Wave Song" sign, which is still on 0]
Young Hunter, "Trail of Tears"
There's a real Queens of the Stone Age vibe going here, with a lot of that kind of desert inflected stuff coming through, along with some of the same sort of vocals Josh Homme uses sometimes. There's also some similarity with the structure of the song. None of this is a bad thing!