Songs That Are Good

The Replacements - 20th Century Boy (Boink!! Bootleg) In...

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:30:39 -0500

The Replacements - 20th Century Boy
(Boink!! Bootleg)

In addition to many, many other things, The Replacements happened to be the greatest cover band that ever did live.

(Your narrator may have spent the last evening with this and a bottle of whiskey)

we-built-this-come-death: Mission of Burma - That’s When I...

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 09:01:01 -0500

we-built-this-come-death:

Mission of Burma - That’s When I Reach for My Revolver

slicingeyeballs: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds to release new...

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 09:59:16 -0500

slicingeyeballs:

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds to release new album ‘Push the Sky Away’ in February | DETAILS

cargohoo: Sonic Youth - Death Valley ‘69

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:00:27 -0400

cargohoo:

Sonic Youth - Death Valley ‘69

Metz - Rats (Metz) There have been a number of bands doing the...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 13:30:27 -0400

Metz - Rats
(Metz)

There have been a number of bands doing the Jesus-Lizard/Amphetamine-Reptile-type-thing recently, but only a few of them seem to have figured out the secret to doing it right. You see, as gleefully insane as records like Goat sounded, they were meticulously constructed (it shouldn’t be surprising Duane Denison is classically trained). Luckily for us Metz is in on the secret, and have taken it close to heart.

taryninstereo: Tim Hecker - “I’m Transmitting Tonight” (Radio...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 07:26:05 -0400

taryninstereo:

Tim Hecker - “I’m Transmitting Tonight” (Radio Amor)

This one’s for the media outlets with working transmitters on the East Coast.

Talking Heads - Thank You For Sending Me An Angel [Country Angel...

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 17:30:21 -0400

Talking Heads - Thank You For Sending Me An Angel [Country Angel Version]
(More Songs About Buildings And Food, 2005 Re-issue)

Unclassifiable super-geniuses Talking Heads are one of the few Important Bands whose endless reissues, remasters, compilations, box sets, rarity collections, bootlegs, concert DVDs and secret radio transmissions that can only heard by people with dental work done in Soviet Russia in the late 1970’s are totally, 100% worth tracking down and spending all your money on. Also, read David Byrne’s book, it is excellent.

360degreemusic: Seattle’s best kept secret, Police Teeth (...

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 08:56:34 -0400

360degreemusic:

Seattle’s best kept secret, Police Teeth ( James Burns: vocals/guitar - Chris Rasmussen: vocals/bass - Richy Boyer: drums), have just released their sophomore, self titled album on Latest Flame Records. This noisy (and by their own admission), sweaty, mustache wearing 3 piece who been compared with Les Savy Fav and the Thermals are in the middle of a mini tour of the USA.

Check out their video from the the album, Emmanuelle In Renton.

Police Teeth are the best

augustninetythree: PUPS Seems like Rose Melberg of Tiger Trap,...

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:51:38 -0400

augustninetythree:

PUPS

Seems like Rose Melberg of Tiger Trap, The Softies, Go Sailor, etc has started a new Vancouver based band called PUPS. I’m stoked, hopefully they start playing shows soon. I would love to see Rose perform in person, and the rest of the band too of course, but yeah.

As of now you can listen to two songs on their bandcamp.

Exciting times!

newspeedwayboogie: Jason Molina - Heart My Heart New music...

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 06:47:36 -0400

newspeedwayboogie:

Jason Molina - Heart My Heart

New music from Jason Molina (well, older music recently released), which serves to fill our Molina jones, which by now is pretty deep. This feels like an acoustic demo - it very much is - but captures Molina at his best, most rootless wandering. Come back soon Jason, please.

Sparklehorse & Jason Lytle - Everytime I’m With You...

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 17:27:34 -0400

Sparklehorse & Jason Lytle - Everytime I’m With You
(Dark Night Of The Soul)

This song reminds me of far too many women. Real talk.

pumpkininny: mclusky- love song for a mexican Andy Falkous...

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:30:23 -0400

pumpkininny:

mclusky- love song for a mexican

Andy Falkous certainly had a knack for titling things. One of mclusky’s most straightforward, anthemic tracks, so of course it only saw release as a limited edition bonus track on a posthumous compilation.

In their defence, they put two versions of it on the posthumous compilation, and the second one is friggin astounding

Orcas - Until Then (Orcas) Orcas tread a fine line between...

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:17:15 -0400

Orcas - Until Then
(Orcas)

Orcas tread a fine line between sleepyheaded ambient murmurings and the gentler end of the post-rock spectrum, and do a decent job of keeping things interesting despite that. It may get a bit irksome if you try and listen to them anywhere outside your bed, but there’s nothing wrong with specializing.

Also they’re clearly Broadcast fans, which is enough to put them in my good books.

Paws - Homecoming(Cokefloat!) It has recently come to my...

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 09:10:00 -0400

Paws - Homecoming
(Cokefloat!)

It has recently come to my attention that music has gotten kind of good again. Or, at the very least, borrowed nostalgia has finally caught up with things I actually remember. So it seems a particularly opportune time to relapse into this horrible habit of mine (mmm, it can smell those delicious, delicious Likes already).

There will be some changes though. I’m probably a little too old to sound like an over-sugared tween all the time. Also, I’ve finally made my peace with Weezer. They have their thing. Pinkerton was a one time deal. It’s fine.

So welcome back. You look nice. Hopefully this whole thing won’t be a big fat Maladroit*.

Oh, Paws. I like them! They sound like nice kids who’ve been properly raised, and taught their Malkmus and Martsch every day. May all our kids grow up to be that non-useless.

^{*Ok I lied about Weezer. Fuck that band.}

Tullycraft - Cowgirls on Parade(Beat Surf Fun) Sometimes it is...

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 10:00:05 -0500

Tullycraft - Cowgirls on Parade
(Beat Surf Fun)

Sometimes it is nice to close one’s eyes and pretend it isn’t the middle of December.

Tom Waits - Hell Broke Luce (Bad As Me) Tom Waits switches from...

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 14:29:17 -0400

Tom Waits - Hell Broke Luce
(Bad As Me)

Tom Waits switches from demonic carnival barker to whiskey-drowned lounge crooner so seamlessly it’s hard to believe he’s just one person, or at the very least doesn’t have the grotesque head of his partially absorbed siamese twin hidden in his shirt to bark out the brawlers. His latest is a master class in being old and awesome, in a time when it’s easy to give up hope in that even being possible (looking at you Lou Reed*). As far as I know, this is the first song of his to be out and out anti-war, and it’s so magnificently vicious it may make Dylan hang up his complainin’ boots for good.

^{*Seriously, what… what the hell was that? It’s like someone recorded him muttering in his sleep and played it over a high school cover-band’s demo tape. Goddammit.}

Placebo Effect / Siouxsie and the Banshees

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 09:40:33 -0400

Placebo Effect / Siouxsie and the Banshees

Seam - Two Is Enough (Are You Driving Me Crazy) Seam were a band...

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 11:37:00 -0400

Seam - Two Is Enough
(Are You Driving Me Crazy)

Seam were a band constantly struggling against themselves. Unable to decide between making languid, melancholy sonic sculptures, and tearing shit apart like a plague of locusts, they tried to have it both ways. Their quiet moments are infused with a sense of barely concealed tension, and their loud ones a savage joy but an almost instant pang of regret at letting themselves go. It should be unbearable, but instead it’s utterly captivating. It’s amazing they lasted as long as they did.

Ida - Shoe In (Ten Small Paces) Here at Songs That Are Good HQ,...

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:04:06 -0400

Ida - Shoe In
(Ten Small Paces)

Here at Songs That Are Good HQ, sappy love songs (unless performed by a certain R. Melberg) are far more likely to trigger eye-rolls, fake-barfing and dark mutterings about ‘cooties’ than come anywhere near my shrivelled black heart-strings. A new exception has recently entered the list though; Low-impersonators-turned-cuddle-rock-overlords Ida. Here they are simpering away in the most heinous manner, and being infuriatingly captivating about it.

Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - I Used To Dream Dread + Eyes...

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:55:00 -0400

Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - I Used To Dream Dread + Eyes In The Dark
(Dreadcade)

Though widely reported as a one-man-project, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words is a long running collaboration between Swedish artist Thomas Ekelund, the smoke-monster from Lost, and Dracula. Swathed in mystery, tape-hiss, electronics bleeps and bloops, and definitely not the screams of robot-babies-from-the-future, DLSODW’s myriad releases defy terms like ‘ambient’ and ‘drone’ with their unnatural depth and well-concealed structures.

This year saw their final release, a collection of unreleased songs and cuts from some of their more-obscure releases (spanning cassettes, vinyl, speak-and-spells, Stonehenges, and even the internet). Hopefully it just means they’ll be calling themselves something else on their next one.