We open and close today pretty funky! And, you know, track four is built on the Amen break, so I'll count that too!
Parliament, "Oil Jones"
Parliament's first album was in 1970, and Medicaid Fraud Dogg came out in 2018. When I think about the idea that I might do the same job for 48 years, I can't really wrap my head around it. And I got an early start in my career! Sure, this isn't George Clinton's best work. But nevertheless, it's still impressive.
The Glands, "I Can See My House From Here"
I always get "The Glands" mixed up with "The Goats" as being similarly bad band names. I always then am surprised by The Glands not being a strange hip-hop group and instead being indie pop. This has happened essentially every time I've encountered this band unexpectedly.
Crystalized Movements, "An Explanation"
This is how the masterpiece from Crystalized Movements opens, and it's a perfectly nice way to open this album of psychedelic guitar freakouts. I think I've mentioned before that, at the time, this was my favorite album that came out in 1992. That's very much not the case today (Drive Like Jehu would be the front of that list, off the top of my head), but it says something about how much it stood out at the time. And it still holds up today, it's a fun journey.
Alec Empire, "Bang Your Head!"
I hooked up my Korg Monologue to the stereo in the living room today so that the kids could horse around with it. The boy has been learning to play the piano, so he was having a grand time playing the Super Mario Bros theme on it with all kinds of goofy noises. But, it sure didn't take long for he and his sister to wind up with something that ended up in Alec Empire territory, sans drums.
Cookin' Bag, "This Is Me"
This is from the Wheedle's Groove compilation, and that whole record is just scorching. Most of these artists didn't have too much of a recorded career, but it's nice to have moments like this preserved.