Gaunt, "I Don't Care"
I praise Gaunt pretty shamelessly on here, because they're one of those bands (along with yesterday's Hammerhead) that click perfectly with me. That, combined with the fact that they're mostly forgotten today, makes me want to really push them on folks. But, I can't make a better argument for Gaunt than what they're making here today. This is just pure energy and tunefulness, and every bit of it makes me happy. I hope you love this song, I certainly do.
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, "Television The Drug Of The Nation"
There was a little boomlet of very political, explicitly left hip-hop in the early 90s, with today's band being one of the better received ones. This is from their only album, and the lyrics are a little bit focused on the polemics to the exclusion of the music. If you're thinking, gee, that sounds like Consolidated, you're right! And Mark Pistel of that band was a producer on this record, so it's all connected. Michael Franti of the Disposable Heroes is certainly better on the mic than anybody in Consolidated, so this is a better album, but it's still kind of exhausting. Franti would move on to Spearhead after this single album, and would put out a bunch of albums under that name.
Propagandhi, "Middle Finger Response"
I think the band I've gotten the most dirty looks bumping loudly in my car is Public Enemy, because I was doing said bumping in the late 80s/early 90s in Spokane, not a hotbed of appreciation for loud, political hip-hop. But I think #2 is probably Propagandhi, thanks to all the loud swearing and the fact that I played a shit ton of it driving around during a couple summer jobs. This song in particular was a real favorite of my fellow Spokane drivers. Hey Spokane drivers! One more fuck you, for old times!
Fight Amp, "Survival is Strange"
Part noise rock, part hardcore, this should be totally up my alley. And it's good, but it doesn't really grab me and stick in my memory, so I had kind of forgotten about it in my collection. Not bad! I'll probably forget about it again now.
Agalloch, "Ghosts of the Midwinter Fires"
Agalloch are a metal band from Oregon that are tough to really pin down. Their primary genre is probably black metal, as you can tell from the vocals, but like their fellow Pacific Northwest band Wolves in the Throne Room, there's a lot of atmospheric stuff going on. Melding folk and doom into their sound results in a much more restless record, but a much stronger one.