Xzibit, "Carry The Weight"
Before he was on MTV, before he became a meme, Xzibit was a hardcore rapper, which sometimes kind of seems like it's forgotten. His debut album, featuring production by E-Swift and Muggs among others, is a strong piece of work. Xzibit is a solid rapper, and his storytelling is very good here. It's not essential, but it's a good album that seems mostly forgotten at this point.
The Queers, "I Live This Life"
This basically sounds like a Minor Threat song at first. But it's not Minor Threat, alas.
Easy Big Fella, "Mom and Dad"
Feel like this is a repeat. (checks) A repeat. And I was just thinking it had been a little while since we've heard one. SIX SONGS BABY
At some point, I will no longer be able to remember what's showed up here before. I mean, we're north of 1,200 songs on this thing. I feel pretty good I'm mostly staying on top of it so far.
The Baseball Project, "The Babe"
Side project of Scott McCaughey of the Young Fresh Fellows, Steve Wynn, Linda Pitmon, and Peter Buck of The Minus 5 (oh, and I suppose, R.E.M.), this is very much in the vein of McCaughey's other projects musically. Only, the songs are all about baseball. As you might imagine, I'm VERY into this. "Harvey Haddix" is one of my very favorite neo-folk rock songs. It gets a little dusty in the room when that song comes on.
I once decided to play their first album in the car for the kids to listen to, but had totally forgotten that the second song on the album is "Ted Fucking Williams." Anyway, if you love baseball, you should pick up their three albums. If you like baseball and narrative rock, you should also pick up the three albums. If you fall into neither of those categories, I've got nothing for you.
The Books, "the lemon of pink"
Being the oddballs that they are, this is actually the second song called "the lemon of pink" on the album of the same name. I wish I knew why this was appealing to me. It would probably really illuminate something in me.
Pavement, "Brink Of The Clouds"
From the "Rattled By The Rush" single, Pavement's b-sides were kind of all over the map. Sometimes great, sometimes dodgy, as you might expect for a band with the quality control issues they sometimes exhibited. This kind of straddles the line, being simultaneously dodgy and kind of majestic.