The Sea and Cake, "There You Are"
Chicago band featuring Sam Prekop and various other post-rock folks, working in a similar vein as Tortoise and Gastr del Sol. Like most other post-rock outfits, you're in for a pretty wide variety of influences, and as time went on, you get more and more stuff added in to the sound. Still, due mainly to Prekop's vocals, they're more grounded than some of their peers in that scene.
Versus, "Shangri-La"
Versus played indie pop, and did a pretty good job of it. Secret Swingers is my favorite record of theirs, and I like everything from before it as well. They were at their most interesting when they had lots of vocal interplay between Fontaine Toups and Richard Baluyut. Long time readers will recognize Versus as the source band for some of folks in +/-.
Spring Heeled Jack, "Peg Leg Bates"
Another of the endless parade of lower-tier third-wave ska acts you get around here. I apologize for that? But, at the same time, it's an honest reflection of where my tastes were at least at one point in time.
Guided By Voices, "Demons Are Real"
Guided by Voices are one of the most exhausting bands to try and keep up with, for a couple reasons. One, they're ridiculously prolific when they're working, with albums coming out constantly. Two, those albums are filled to the brim with everything that Robert Pollard had going through his head. Some of that will be great music. Some of it will be fragments of songs that you want to hear more of, but they end too quickly.. And some of it will just be nonsense. And even when they're playing a good song, there will still be issues with the recording or something else. In spite of all the barriers, the mid 90s stuff still manages to be great, with Bee Thousand (the album this song comes from) and Alien Lanes being the pick of the litter.
Marnie Stern, "Her Confidence"
I honestly think the best thing to come out of this project for me, so far, was to reconnect me to Marnie Stern's music, which I'd kind of forgotten about. I don't know why I forgot, I love it!