We have another Bandcamp embed here, so the YouTube playlist only has four songs instead of the usual five. I assume you'll all survive.
YACHT, "The Denver Nuggets"
Whimsical electronic music, sounding here like nothing so much as a video game song. I used to keep a list of albums to check out in a document that I carried around in various electronic devices (Palm OS represent!), and sometimes albums would make their way onto it and stay for a really long time until I found them. This was before most everything was instantly available digitally. I remember Y.A.C.H.T. getting on that list and staying there for so long that I couldn't remember why they were on there or what they purportedly sounded like. I was somewhat nonplussed upon finally finding the record at the old Easy Street Records in lower Queen Anne.
Public Enemy, "Resurrection"
Public Enemy will always be Hall of Famers for their early career, with It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back still my benchmark for the best rap album ever made. Indeed, it's my favorite album period. The band started going downhill with Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age, which had some outstanding songs and some really dodgy stuff. That was followed by He Got Game, a soundtrack to the Spike Lee movie of the same name. Again, they sounded like themselves on some songs (this track, "He Got Game" - gotta love that Buffalo Springfield loop), but there was too much filler on the album. They're still going, amazingly, although they have never come particularly close to matching their first four albums. At their best, though, they were amazing.
Rocket From The Crypt, "Shucks"
Rocket From The Crypt will forever be known to me as John "Speedo" Reis's other band, with Drive Like Jehu being his best band. This, of course, is a manifestly unfair evaluation. They're different bands, playing different kinds of music, and when RFTC was good, they were great. And really, we need more punk bands using horns not as a gimmick, but an organic part of their sound. Circa: Now!, Scream, Dracula, Scream!, and Group Sounds are all excellent records. This track comes from Hot Charity (later reissued on a compilation along with the EP, Cut Carefully and Play Loud), which is a solid effort in the band's catalog.
Young Fresh Fellows, "I Got My Mojo Working (And I Thought You'd Like To Know)"
Our second song from the Fellows is another cut from The Men Who Loved Music. It's just some nonsense about outdated slang, really, but still manages to be very entertaining.
Hyborian, "Blood For Blood"
Hyborian are basically just Mastodon worship, which isn't a terrible thing. And, of course, we have a wizard on the cover, not to mention a Conan-derived name. They're hitting all the marks! Overall, of course, you should just listen to Mastodon, but if you've listened to Blood Mountain too much recently, Advanced Mastodon Substitute is sometimes what you need.