Grandaddy, "The Warming Sun"
I sometimes wonder why some bands don't connect with me. Grandaddy, for instance. Highly regarded by lots of people, so they're a good band by most measures. They are mining a similar vein as Wilco, who I love. They obviously know what they're doing. And yet? Nothing. It's not clear why that is, how the aesthetics of Grandaddy just don't turn my crank. But there we are.
(Not turning my crank here means that I have only two albums from them.)
Electric Guest, "The Bait"
Electric Guest play something like a cross between electro-funk and pop, which is exactly as fun as it sounds. This is from Mondo, an excellent album. And while looking up when it was released (2012), I discovered they have a follow up. Nice.
(looks)
Yup, already own it. (cough)
Nine Inch Nails, "Love Is Not Enough"
"Love Is Not Enough" is pretty much the quintessential name of a Nine Inch Nails song, isn't it? Also, sounds like the name of a Cure song. Anyway, this is from With Teeth, a bit of a curious album in his discography. After the many stylistic shifts of his previous records, with the run capped off by the double-disc ambition (and mess) of The Fragile, With Teeth comes across as a throwback. It's sort of The Downward Spiral part 2. I think it's probably the least ambitious record that he ever made, the one where he's most obviously not stretching his boundaries. It's still good, mind you, because Trent Reznor is an obsessive. It's just not as interesting as most of his other stuff.
P. Miles Bryson, "Swivel-Base Functionality And The Understated Felt Svelte"
Following in the footsteps of John Oswald and Negativland, P. Miles Bryson uses samples, found sound, and our shared cultural context to build unsettling sound collages. You can't really call this kind of thing music, not really. It's experimentation with sound. Bryson sticks mostly to older sounds, giving some nostalgic tinge to the proceedings. I think this kind of thing is really fun, but I'm a weirdo.
J-Zone, "Go Back To Sellin' Weed (Instrumental)"
I wonder how many times that "[beep] flatline" sample has been used. Hell, used by J-Zone? Anyway, this is one of his later songs, so enjoy the live drums!
(NB: this song starts at 7:09 in the linked video.)