Another repeat today, this time that same Dr. Octagon track. The more I do this, the more I think Amazon's randomization thing is pretty wonky. Oh well. Today's tunes!
The Housemartins, "I'll Be Your Shelter"
Speak of the devil! Here's the Housemartins taking on Luther Ingram's "I'll Be Your Shelter". As with most of their covers, it's thoroughly enjoyable (as is the original). Basically, soul music rules.
This song appears on both London 0, Hull 4 as well as the rarities/singles roundup Now That's What I Call Quite Good, which are both outstanding.
Jonathan Coulton, "Still Alive"
Famous as the song from Portal, this song doesn't make as much sense without the background of that game. Well, whatever. I ended up liking this album more than I thought I would. I don't really care for Coulton in concert (I've seen him several times opening for They Might Be Giants), but the more expansive arrangements on the recorded album work better for me.
Farside, "Seven-Day Constant"
Melodic punk band Farside put out a handful of albums in the 90s, with a pretty slow rate of release, but all three are solid records. This song is a good example of what you'd get from The Monroe Doctrine, which is probably their best record.
Meat Beat Manifesto, "Phone Calls From the Dead"
Feels like it's been a while since we've had an electronic artist around here. Meat Beat Manifesto was often lumped in with other industrial dance acts like Front 242, but they were always closer to the techno scene than those bands. Really, Meat Beat Manifesto married a whole lot of influences, ranging from breakbeats, house music, the noise of industrial, and the sampling of both hip hop and more abstract electronic music. The result was a series of really interesting albums through the early 90s which hold up pretty well today.
J Church, "Radical Chic"
More melodic punk from Bay Area stalwarts J Church. I first encountered the band while I was a DJ at WRCT at Carnegie Mellon, working the small hours of the morning because I never really tried to get a prime spot. Their first single showed up, and I was assigned to listen to it to write a little capsule review. I wasn't sure exactly what I found captivating about it, but I immediately loved it. I kept pushing the band to the rest of the staff, basically to no avail. And here I am, still pushing them. They're great! I'm not entirely sure why!