Young Fresh Fellows, "Whatever You Are"
Scott McCaughey managed to play a show a couple of weeks ago, which is just a delightful piece of news. I hope he has many more in him, and I hope I get to see one! In the meantime, enjoy this vintage song from him, off the entertaining and off-kilter It's Low Beat Time.
Beulah, "Your Mother Loves You Son"
Beulah is a band that always managed to sound like other bands, and a pretty wide variety of other bands to boot. Honestly, this song has more than a little Young Fresh Fellows in it. I'm OK with that!
Pyrrhon, "Gamma Knife"
This doesn't sound a damn thing like the Young Fresh Fellows. This is the first appearance from one of my favorite metal bands going, Brooklyn arsonists Pyrrhon. Lumped in with technical death metal, Pyrrhon manages to be a lot more interesting to me than most bands in that bucket. The focus isn't just on pure virtuosity, but instead on doing interesting things with the song structures and with dissonance and chaos. This comes from their debut album, An Excellent Servent But a Terrible Master, which is actually their most conventional album. They would build on the adventurous spirit of this album and push into some uncharted territory. There are very few bands pushing the envelope harder than Pyrrhon.
Buzzkill, "...And Then"
I'm never really sure what to say about these tracks that are just fuckin' around.
Devo, "Praying Hands (Live)"
Devo helped bring about new wave, with the way they used synths on their first album (Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!) being an inspiration for later bands. Add in their art rock touches, their satire, and their dadaist sense of humor, and you have a band that has inspired a pretty wide range of following artists. That first album is one that still sounds pretty great today.
This comes from the bonus tracks added to the deluxe re-release of the album.
(NB: this is a different live version than the one I listened to.)