Fog, "Pneumonia"
What do you get when you cross lo-fi indie rock with turntablism? You get Fog, pretty much, with this song sounding like Silkworm ran into Kid Koala. Which is a solid pitch! This kind of hybrid really only works when the constituent parts are good, and mostly, this album succeeds on that basis. I had kind of forgotten about it, honestly, and I'm glad shuffle dug it up.
La Gritona, "Cordite"
Gimme that noise rock! The relatively narrow palette of sounds used by the noise rock bands of the early to mid 90s just hit me perfectly. I think much of that is just the age at which I encountered this stuff, as everybody thinks the music of their teens is the best, but that's fine. I'm willing to accept my total lack of musical evolution. Hit me with that filthy production and garbled vocals!
Arrested Development, "Natural"
I was driving to see the Lollapalooza tour, at the Gorge in George, Washington, in the summer of 1993. There were a bunch of bands I wanted to see, so I was pretty excited. It was just me in the family's Civic, but that's OK, I could crank the tunes plenty loud, so a couple hour drive to see the show wasn't so bad. Once I arrived, there was a pretty good line for parking, but I sure wasn't turning down the noise. I had Novelty from Jawbox blasting out, and the line next to me moved up a car. A guy leans out the window of my newly arrived neighbor and shouts across at me "hey, is that Arrested Development?" I was baffled. They were pretty big at the time, with a hit song, and they very much sounded nothing like Jawbox. It looked like the occupants of that car were giggling, and I couldn't tell if they were winding me up or not. "Uh, no, this is Jawbox," I reply, playing it straight. "Are you sure?" Confused, I offer that I actually have the Arrested Development album with me. I fish it out and put it on. When the scratching kicks in about thirty seconds in to the album, the guy in the car next door pulls a "who farted" face and orders me to "turn that rap shit off!"
I turned it up.
Ulver, "Solaris"
Ulver started as black metal (and very good black metal), but very quickly moved from there into many other genres. They've made folk records, a bunch of explicitly experimental stuff (such as recording an album in a field), ambient, and have used electronics as well. On ATGCLVLSSCAP, they embraced those electronics, producing an album that really sounds more like post-rock than anything else. I don't think it's their best work, but I do apreciate bands that are constantly pushing their own boundaries.
The Queers, "Terminal Rut"
Yeah! Exactly the opposite of the Queers! Also: "Terminal Rut", eh?