Just missed "Scentless Apprentice" by Nirvana. I guess we'll have to wait for another day for my indisputable Nirvana album rankings. Alas. Well, here's today's music, anyway.
Sleater-Kinney, "All Hands on the Bad One"
Sleater-Kinney is a little bit of a strange one. I always enjoy them thoroughly while they're playing, and then everything disappears from my brain afterwards. Sitting here, I can't really call up the tune for any of their songs, despite having listened to them a lot. I like them! I've listened to them a bunch! And yet, they're still invisible inside of my brain. Strange.
The Apples in Stereo, "Behind the Waterfall"
More Beatles-aping psychedelic pop from The Apples in Stereo, who as always do this stuff well, if for some reason you don't want the real thing.
Devin the Dude, "Show Em"
Many rappers make a livelihood out of a pretty limited number of subjects, but Devin the Dude really takes it to another level, with an astonishing number of his songs about weed and women. At his best (Just Tryin' Ta Live), he was laid back and charming, but even then, his songs were still all about weed and women. He has a lane, and he's staying in it.
Green Day, "86"
Green Day's Dookie ate the world after its release, and the question really became what the band would do for a followup. The answer turned out to be: just make Dookie again, but slightly worse. Insomniac, then, is still a very good record, but short of their best work.
Darkthrone, "Where Cold Winds Blow"
Hilariously, this track carries an "[Explicit]" tag in my collection. Like anybody can make out what he's howling! Anyway, Darkthrone is one of the key figures in the evolution of black metal, being one of the key "second wave" bands that took the racket of Venom and Bathory and took it even further. The aesthetic that Darkthrone demonstrated on A Blaze in the Northern Sky - inhuman shrieking, furious blast beats, alienating lo-fi production, and bleak subject matter - would set the template for countless black metal bands to follow.