1. Knapsack - Shape of the Fear
Classic pop-punk/emo/indie from the 90s. Definitely a major influence on a lot of what's happening in the pop-punk/emo scene now.
2. Johan Johansson - A Memorial Garden on Enghavevej
Beautiful minimal-classical scoring.
3. Megadrive - NARC
80s-sci-fi-influenced driving electro music. I'm not against it.
4. Lone - New Colour
Really unforgettable electro dance music.
5. Broken Social Scene - Capture the Flag
I never really got into this band, though the timing was right. This is the opener to their acclaimed Your Forgot it in People. Pretty legendary indie stuff, but I dunno. It never connected with me.
6. Prodigy - What U Rep
I bought one of Prodigy's solo albums in college. It was not very good. This is pretty on par with that album. Sometimes dynamic duos should stay dynamic duos.
7. Kate Bush - Pull Out the Pin
Louise: "I'm Leafy Greenbriar"
Regular-Sized Rudy: "And I'm Kate Bush!"
One of the greatest things about Bob's Burgers is the kids ability to make pop culture references in ways that really mimic how media-saturated kids would. Rudy's so sure of the brilliant reference without possibly possessing the ability to know exactly who Kate Bush is. This is great angry, weirdo stuff from Bush in the early 80s. Challenging and obscure with lots of raw emotion.
8. Texas is the Reason - Jack with One Eye
Growing up, Revelation Records meant Bold, Chain of Strength, Gorilla Biscuits, Judge, and Youth of Today. It also meant finding out about all these non-hardcore or quasi-hardcore bands that were on the same label. When you're young, you unintentionally pigeon-hole independent labels. Revelation, from the beginning to now, always refused such a myopic understanding of underground music. I remember thinking about Texas is the Reason, among others, "This band is on the same label as Warzone?" and then totally getting it. Revelation Records really was tapped into the polymorphous landscape of hardcore and punk and alt music in the 80s and 90s (and 00s). Texas is the Reason was such a great band - guitar-driven emo with off-center vocals and just the right amount of brooding and aggression.
9. Desiderii Marginis - Procession
Dark, haunting ambient songs with dense texturing and layering. Gorgeously constructed soundscapes of black forests, empty cities.
10. The Mountain Goats - Southwestern Territory
I wasn't into this band when they were big, and I'm not about to be into them now. I bet this album shows up on a lot of Top 10s this year. Not for me.
11. Sandwell District - Falling the Same Way
Minor-key synth riff looped incessantly over distressed sounds of echoes in empty rooms with a little electro-flair to build up feelings of anxiety and elation. Then it turns into this dark-alley dance track that sounds like the internal monologue of a rogue vigilante putting on his black leather jacket. It's too ethereal to really dance to, but it keeps you engaged in this bleakly upbeat way.
12. Balam Acab - Welcome
I am really, really into this. Apparently this dude came from the witch-house scene in the late 00s, but this song is creepy and disorienting until it erupts into this this orchestral light show that only adds to its haunting sound. I gotta listen to this album
13. Prince Rama - So Destroyed
This is totally fine psyched-out lo-fi indie stuff. I don't connect with it at all, but I get it. I bet it would be cool live. Or maybe I leave after a couple songs. I dunno. I'm maybe glad it's already over?
14. Beach House - One Thing
From their super-secret extra special new new album! The drifting, listless ennui of this song has to be the major appeal of Beach House, right? Like suburban kids feel bored, and this is what boredom sounds like. Instead of getting angry and finding punk rock, they just languished. I get wanting to drift, but not on this slow-motion ocean.
15. Donovan Wolfington - Die Alone
Top Shelf's current poster band. I think they're playing with Free Throw when I'm going to be out of town. I bet seeing them live would've turned me onto them big time. Free Throw was so good at Wrecking Ball. Maybe I'll jam that new DW album now.
16. Biosphere - Uve-Ursi
Substrata is a classic ambient album. This is from the follow-up Substrata 2. It's chock full of ambient goodness for all your ambient needs.
17. Faith No More - Sol Invictus
No. No no no. Why are you foisting the new Faith No More album on me like this, Spotify? I don't want anything to do with it.
18. Tonstartssbandt - Black Country
This type of stuff just doesn't appeal to me. I don't know if its the vocals or what, or if it suffers from the same enervation of Beach House, but I find myself totally uninterested after ninety seconds.
19. The Soft Boys - I Wanna Destroy You
Really fun early British poppy post-punk. Snotty, punkish take on 60s rock
20. Actress - Rule
I remember finding Actress on Spotify last year and thinking, "Where's this been all my life!" and then promptly forgetting all about it. It's impossible to not nod your head to this beat.
21. Orcas, Michael Lerner - Infinite Stillness
I wanna like this. I do. But I can't. The vocals ruin it for me. I gotta figure out a way to describe these kind of vocals, because they drive me fuckin' insane.
22. Biggie - Things Done Changed
One of my favourite Biggie songs ever. Either ya slingin' crack rock or ya got a wicked jump shot. Man. Hard as fuck.
23. Olan Mill - Cotton Access
I used to have this Olan Mill's album on my iPod queued up for reading days during my Master's program. Beautiful ambient sound textures.
24. Marconi Union - A Temporary Life
At this point, it's beyond clear that listening to nothing but Harold Budd and Brian Eno in the office this week has influenced this playlist. Apparently they wrote a song called "Weightless" that some for-profit neuroscience lab claims legitimately reduced anxiety and heart-rate in listeners. They were named Inventors of the Year by Time in 2011. Gonna have to listen to that all week long.
25. Jon Hopkins - A Drifting Up
I bought this CD for a dollar at Schoolkids Records in Athens a bunch of years ago. I think I've probably moved on from this.
26. Mew - Fox Cub
And the Glass Handed Kites is so good that you sometimes have to wonder what we did to deserve Mew. Like, I don't deserve to listen to Mew, but here I am, listening to it.
27. Cold Cave - Oceans with No End
Wes Eisold is my hero, and that's all I'm gonna say. Well, I'll say more, but later. Wes fucking Eisold. I feel bad for everyone who has never had Wes Eisold in their lives. How do you manage?
28. Rivka - Swim High
"We are a Pittsburgh based electronic group currently producing chill vibes and summertime highs," reads Rivka's bandcamp. That's a fair assessment, so let's leave it at that.
29. Snowing - I Think We're in Minsk
If there's one thing that I truly love and will never stop loving, it's twinkly, whiny emo with big sing-along choruses. It's all slightly off-key, and I love it. Ah god it's so good.
30. Pan-American - The Cloud Room
This is like the fourth group that has Loscil listed in its "Related Artists" category. Loscil also kept showing up while I was listening to different Harold Budd albums on Spotify. Guess I gotta listen to Loscil now. This song is really nice - soft drums holding together a falling bass line and spacey, shiny guitar and synth tones. I'm into it.
I gotta give this week's playlist an A, if not because I liked/loved most of the songs, but because it was clear Spotify was paying attention (i.e. had its algorithms running correctly). I love ambient music and emo music, and Spotify knows that. Good work, everyone!
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