Should I mention when I buy albums here? I probably should. Maybe I'll do that on future Fridays. Today's music.
Andrew Bird, "Pathetique"
The first couple of Andrew Bird albums (officially credited to Andrew Bird and His Bowl of Fire) were more affected and more self-consciously arty than his later work. In a lot of ways, you can hear a lot of Squirrel Nut Zippers in this stuff. You can also hear some of the hallmarks of his later work, especially in the way he uses his violin to provide several different types of sounds, but the early stuff is definitely the sound of an artist finding his way.
Firewater, "El Borracho (Ponzi's Relapse)"
We're going non-rock today apparently. First a calypso, now a waltz. This is a great example of Firewater in their "wedding band gone wrong" mode.
The Pharcyde, "Pack the Pipe (Interlude)"
Aw, I wish we had gotten a real Pharcyde track. Well, anyway, the first Pharcyde record is an all-time classic, and I look forward to it showing up for real some time.
The Slackers, "Manuel"
We really ARE going non-rock today! My favorite band of the third wave, The Slackers, here with a very traditional ska song. This is the opener for The Question, an album that gets a bit lost in the shuffle of albums from them, which is unfair, as I think it's a solid record.
Spent, "No Sign of the Ponies"
Awww, one rock song today, I guess. An indie rock band on Merge, I frankly don't really remember much about this album. I'm sure it got good reviews at the time, but I haven't listened to it in ages and ages.
It turns out, if you search YouTube for any string using the word "ponies", your search results are probably not what you're looking for, unless you wanted something My Little Pony related.