28 April 2020: Sunnier Days

Set 1

“Teenage FBI” by Guided by Voices

This is the version from the Wish in One Hand… EP (and subsequently the best-of Human Amusement at Hourly Rates), which is superior to the polished version from Do the Collapse. One of my favorite GBV songs.

“Your Little Hoodrat Friend” by the Hold Steady

Last week I played a Lifter Puller song. The Hold Steady is Craig Finn’s more famous outing, and I always say that LP is for dark days and THS for sunny days, and since it’s a sunny day I picked one of my favorite THS songs.

“Tessellate” by Tokyo Police Club

One of a few bands whose names end in “club” (see also: Two Door Cinema Club, Bombay Bicycle Club) I was into in middle school. From their first LP, Elephant Shell.

“Skip to the End” by the Futureheads

From their second album, News and Tributes. Not as good as their first, but fortunately they didn’t fall off the way a lot of their contemporaries did.

“Everywhere I Go” by the Muffs

I hadn’t heard of the Muffs until recently, and I’m glad I did, but it was under some unfortunate circumstances: frontwoman Kim Shattuck passed away this past fall from ALS, and WFMU was playing a lot of them (one of the DJs even did a marathon episode). This track is from their self-titled debut. I probably should’ve made it the closing track for this set, but whatever—can’t change the past.

“She Doesn’t Get It” by the Format

If it wasn’t already obvious, the lead singer of the Format is (was) Nate Reuss—the guy from Fun (or, in their styling, fun.). That band had some good tracks, but the Format was more, uh, fun. This one’s from their second and last album, Dog Problems.

Set 2

“One More Hour” by Sleater-Kinney

Off their seminal Dig Me Out. Better than that album’s title track, in my opinion. (I also think the album is better than The Woods, which a lot of people say is their best, but that’s neither here nor there.)

“Wide Awake” by Parquet Courts

Parquet Courts have released an album every other year since 2012, but their last album Wide Awake (which this came from, obviously) came out in 2018 and they haven’t announced anything. Hopefully they do have something coming soon.

“American Hearts” by Piebald

I don’t know much about these guys. They showed up as recommended on last.fm a few times, and then I saw this song on a list of the best emo songs, so I figured I’d check it out. I need to listen to the album at some point.

“Detroit Has A Skyline” by Superchunk

Speaking of emo, the ‘Chunk don’t get enough credit for being precursors to pop-punk (Fall Out Boy, blink-182, etc).

“While You Wait for the Others” by Grizzly Bear

A highlight from their acclaimed Veckatimest. Somehow this came out (2009) almost 11 years ago.

Closing

“The Underdog” by Spoon

One of the more well-known songs from the consistently good Spoon. A lot of bands fizzle out through their career, but this album came out 13 years after they first formed, and I bet you wouldn’t guess just from hearing the song.

Streaming