The Garbage & The Flowers, "Carousel" This is from a comp from the Twisted Village label (Deep Funnels of Entry) featuring a bunch of the psych rock bands the label had. I don't even know who was the most famous of these bands - maybe the...
Madlib, "Pyramids (Change)" This is from Beat Konducta, Volume 1 & 2: Movie Scenes, a record intended as a soundtrack to a non-existant movie as well as a companion piece to J Dilla's revered Donuts. The thing that makes it a little different from Madlib's usual...
De La Soul, "Intro" The biggest exception to rap skits sucking is pretty much anything with Prince Paul involved. The framing device for De La Soul Is Dead, of an audio storybook detailing kids encountering the record for the first time, is delightfully self-refential and...
The Arsonists, "Underground Vandal" The Arsonists' debut album, released in 1999, was very much a throwback record. Not just in sound, but in the way it was created. By 1999, hip-hop had moved into an era of producers being stars separate from rappers. But the...
Today? Fun! Iron & Wine, "Lion's Mane" I think it can be easy to dismiss all these neo-folk types as posers, as just boring sensitive white guys with guitars. And yeah, but some of them are clearly playing something pretty inspired as well. Sam Beam, doing...
