9353, "East of Sudan"
This is really pretty avant-garde for the punk scene of 1984. I mean, sure, there were plenty of post-punk bands working in kind of adjacent spaces, but this is still pretty far out there.
Imarhan, "Ehad Wa Dagh"
We've had Imarhan on here before, but as always, I feel kind of inadequate writing about bands from other cultures that I'm not familiar with. Sure, I can write about, say, punk bands from the US plenty, but I guess I'm not really up to the task of writing about a rock band from Algeria, esepcially as they're clearly blending their own influences with those of rock. It's very cool stuff, though.
Jay Farrar, "Damn Shame"
Oh, thank god. Jay Farrar dissolved Son Volt after three albums and decided to start releasing music under his own name, at least for a little while. After three albums, he went back and reformed Son Volt. Make up your mind! At any rate, this is from the first of those solo albums, Sebastopol, which differs from the previous Son Volt album (Wide Swing Tremelo) primarily by having a different name on the cover. The high points in the Son Volt/Jay Farrar catalog are very high indeed (Trace and Okemah and the Melody of Riot), but the rest of his stuff usually just settles in at good.
Mastodon, "Cut You Up With A Linoleum Knife"
Medium Rarities was released last year, pulling together a bunch of tracks from a bunch of different places. As with most of these sorts of comps, it's uneven, but Mastodon is a great band, so I don't mind having an uneven release from them. This song, much more direct than they usually are, comes from an Aqua Teen Hunger Force soundtrack, which explains a lot.
Jon Bap, "You Got It"
Another one of those leftfield Bandcamp rap albums that I stumbled across, this record is really a lot of fun, although this track isn't super inspiring.