Thursday Random Eight (12/11/2008)

The Afghan Whigs - What Jail is Like: Probably the most popular Whigs song, this was the radio release from the Gentleman album that defined the band as an indie star with 90's miserable outlook on life. From start to end, Gentleman is a continuous pounding of emotional songs that still holds up very well a decade later.

Beequeen - Black Eyed Dog: A quiet, moody, near ambient track from a band I frankly know very little about.

Howard Hello - Even More of the Same: Howard Hello's music is near playful; lots of upbeat rhythms in songs with peculiar measures and vocals that serve more as instruments than a desire to convey words to the listener. Although this is from a different EP, it is hard to pass on a band that titles an album, "Don't Drink His Blood." Good advice.

Slint - Ron: Once again, the iPod goes to the Tweez album to bring back the noise to the morning shuffle.

Hella - City Folk: Continuing the punky noise theme combined with inconsistent measures in beat, Hella brings the excitement (or chaos, perhaps) this morning.

Clint Mansell - Death is the Road to Awe: From The Fountain soundtrack, you can always count on Mansell to bring out the emotion of any film in his compositions. Working again with director Darren Aronofsky, the tracks from this collection are simply stunning.

Genesis - A Winter's Tale: Once again, a song from the band before they were either a progressive bunch of geeks or a pop star conglomerate of morons. There is something so silly about their first album that it is impossible for me to remove from the iPod.

Stereolab - John Cage Bubblegum: Taken from a Peel Session, sometimes this band could just rock live.