Pretty happy with today's set. La Gritona is exactly the kind of band I had hoped to highlight here.
Atmosphere, "When The Lights Go Out"
Atmosphere with Doom and Kool Keith guesting? That sounds amazing. Does it live up to it? Well, Doom is great! Solid song, overall.
Samiam, "Mr. Walker"
Been a few months since we've heard from melodic punk rockers Samiam. This song comes from their fifth album, You Are Freaking Me Out, the last of what I consider to be their peak albums (along with Billy and Clumsy). This stuff is just musical comfort food to me.
Bumpy Knuckles, "The Lah"
This comes from the FatBeats Compilation, Volume 1, the first from an excellent compilation series from the early 2000s. It's a cross section of various underground acts along with the occasional elder statesman. There's plenty of fun stuff on here, and it's a little bit of a time capsule of that time in hip hop.
Belle & Sebastian, "Jonathan David"
I'm not going to look, but I'm pretty sure I've praised Belle & Sebastian's singles and EPs in the past. They're usually really good! In particular, there were a half-dozen EPs they put out prior to their fifth album, Dear Catastrophe Waitress, which collectively represent some of the strongest music they put together. The last two of that sequence, "Legal Man" and "Jonathan David", presaged the stylistic shift that they went through on Dear Catastrophe Waitress, and represent the link between the more folk-like albums before to the poppier albums after.
This song in particular also happens to be one of the best songs Stevie Jackson has ever written, so that's also fun.
La Gritona, "2 Lane Blacktop"
Noise rock band out of Boston, La Gritona flew under the radar of even the most dedicated scenesters. Like, um, me. Despite being a ravenous consumer of noise rock at the time, and actively seeking out everything I could find, I never heard of them back in the day. But thanks to the wonders of Bandcamp, La Gritona's entire recorded output has been resurrected and I was able to find out about them. And it's really good! I would have liked to have seen them, but at least I've heard of them now.