Driving on through Sunday! Even though I'm actually writing this on Friday! Time is confusing! Music is forever!
Einstürzende Neubauten, "Trinklied"
We haven't hit Neubauten proper yet, although we did encounter Alexandre Hacke with his work with The Unsemble. Einstürzende Neubauten (literally, "collapsing new buildings") is sort of the prototypical industrial band, as opposed to industrial dance. They make use of noise, atypical percussion, and the sounds of industry to make challenging music. Early in their career, it was about noise and chaos. Towards their mid-period, there was a steer towards more recognizable rhythms and even, yes, some danceable stuff. Later on, things moved more towards ambient compositions. Always, though, their music and art has had an edge, and they've always been one of the most interesting bands working. They even did crowdfunding way before the crowd did, way back in 2002.
This song is from what I still consider to be their best album, Halber Mensch. They'll be showing up plenty, so I'll save more discussion for later.
Cut Chemist, "2266 Cambridge"
Cut Chemist is one of the DJs for the outstanding Jurassic 5. His solo work is, like most DJ work, sort of more interesting in theory than in practice, although there are plenty of fun moments on it. It usually perks up the most when you hear bits and piece of vocals come in and out.
Edna's Goldfish, "Purple"
Edna's Goldfish popped up pretty late in the third wave of ska, and in a lot of ways typify the third wave. Taking the upstroke of ska, they put it with a propulsive rock beat, and otherwise adopt the structure of a pretty normal rock song. Only with a trumpet solo instead of a guitar solo. Frankly, this sort of thing all ends up blending together, and is a big reason why the third wave eventually fell apart. Too many Edna's Goldfishes, not enough Slackers.
Robyn Hitchcock, "Queen Elvis II"
Robyn Hitchcock is one of those people who has been making music for ages, is well-respected, and I can really say very little about. I think this is the only album from him that I have, and that barely scratches the surface of his career. Anything I type here is just going to be rephrasing other stuff on the web. Good song, though.
(NB: the version I link to is slightly different than the one which popped up on shuffle. Same song, though.)
Rancid, "Reconciliation"
Rising from the ashes of the legendary Operation Ivy, Rancid were honestly a disappointment to me at first. Their first album is far more straight ahead hardcore than it is the breakneck ska-inspired punk of Op Ivy. I'd later come around to deciding that it's a perfectly good hardcore album, but it's hard to escape that shadow, and my internal perception hasn't really changed much.