I’ve had Falling Hard by the Crystal Method going through my head for the past couple of days. This was released 17 years ago, in a time period where a lot of electronic acts were teaming up with vocalists. I just love the groove of this song. Apparently one half of TCM retired a number of years ago and it’s just one guy now. I haven’t really dug into their stuff lately, but what I have heard is OK, I guess. I miss the Big Beat artists of that time period, and the first two TCM albums are desert island discs for me.
This week’s earworm: another oldie, this time from an electroclash group called Ladytron, called Destroy Everything You Touch. I found this on an MP3blog back in the day and loved it; for some reason it snuck into my brain and has been on repeat ever since. I don’t know if Ladytron ever had another hit after this, but they’re still around.
With the music going in so many directions—real instruments that seem like samples, samples that seem like real instruments, word-drunk poetry, near-rap, cavernous breaks—Steinberg was the glue that held everything together.
Pitchfork takes a look back at Ruby Vroom, the first album from Soul Coughing, released 31 years ago. I had to do the math on that twice. This album still bumps.
I’ve mentioned here ad nauseum over the years how much the Smashing Pumpkins and Living Colour both had an effect on my musical growth and appreciation, so I was pleased to learn Billy Corgan hosted a podcast with Vernon Reid where they talk about the genesis of Living Colour out of the jazz/art/club scene in New York City in the middle 80’s, their shared understanding of the music business, the profits and pitfalls of success, and where they are today.
Mr. Corgan is still a divisive personality (he does own up to saying many, many dumb things over the years) but Vernon Reid just sounds like such a down-to-earth, wise, and personable guy. I could sit and listen to these guys talk for hours.
On recommendation from Pitchfork, I tried out this album by a band called Quannic, which is a young guy making shoe gaze-adjacent guitar music on his own. I’m really enjoying most of this album, alhtough it gets a little weak towards the end. Apprently he toured with Slowdive, which sounds like it would be a great fit.
I was a big RHCP fan back in the late 80’s, when they still had the original lineup, moving into their first album after the death of Hillel Slovak. At Lollapalooza in 1990, I bought an overpriced RHCP hat that never fit my head correctly, and which I later sold—an expensive lesson I took to heart. My taste for the band tailed off pretty quickly after that, to the point of indifference and outright distaste. They’ve had some highlights in the intervening years, however, and this song was one of my favorites when it was released almost a decade ago. It’s gotten stuck in my head this week, and it makes a good companion for gray fall days: it’s propulsive, but (to my ears) melancholy, almost sad, especially if you ignore the lyrics. When this band hits on all cylinders, they are still amazing.
Massive Attack just announced the release of new music in 2026, available digitally. Their last full album release was 2010.
Lights Out, by Royal Blood. It’s amazing how much great music two guys with a bass guitar and drums can make. When I first heard this track I thought there must’ve been at least three people in the band, but he’s using a combination of pedals to both mimic a guitar and bass and widen out the sound. And the drumming is really tasty. Their first two albums are killer, and then they changed their sound up a little bit, leaning into disco, which I didn’t enjoy as much.
…that I’m in my mid-50’s: Shopping for food at the Trader Joe’s last night, they played Milquetoast by Helmet.
(this video is a tie-in with the movie The Crow, the thought of which makes me feel even older).
I’ve got a bunch of open browser tabs here so it’s time to clean up.
After years of litigation, a fleet of abandoned surplus planes went to auction in Greybull, Wyoming, including a pair of KC-97 freighters (essentially a B-29 with an extra deck), a trio of C-199 Boxcars, and a pair of P2V Neptunes, as well as multiple fuselages of other models. Oh, to have the money and space to save one of those planes.
Brian started a build thread about his EV project, and our video already has more comments than any of the others I’ve posted over the last two years (sniff!) We’ve got a couple of leads on how other people have wired up their projects, and I’m currently diving into those threads to learn as much as I can.
And in musical news, Alex and Geddy from Rush announced yesterday that they’re going back out on tour ten years after the death of Neal Peart. I’m happy for them; they’re working musicians and deserve to be playing live, which they both excel at. They’ve recruited a drummer who has been playing with Jeff Beck and teaching for over ten years; she looks like she’ll be an excellent fit.