This Track Is Fire!

This is your final reminder this month that it is Bandcamp Friday tomorrow! Always support independent artists and independent music. Buy something cool then come back here and tell me about it!

  This track is 100% techno, meant to get your body moving and your ass shaking.  You want lyrics? You won't get them here, but what you will get are some thick beats and a driving percussion that will make you want to dance. It's a fact, it's science, look it up. Enjoy the distorted love that is Extrawelt "Argonaut!" Speicher 110 by Extrawelt

What is Bandcamp Friday, you may ask? All you need to know is right here . Remember to always support independent artists and independent music. Buy something cool!

I miss the mid-90s when digital hardcore erupted onto the scene, most obviously with the arrival of Atari Teenage Riot and their ilk. While that was 30yrs ago, bands like La Neve have shown that the genre is still very much alive, and I, for one, am thankful for their continued aural assault on my ears. This isn't for everyone, but people that like a cacophony to go with melody and rhythm, this is for you. History Solved by La Neve

  There are not many people that do sad, dadrock much better than Matt Berninger, singer and lyricist of The National. But sometimes that's exactly what you want. Maybe you're sad, maybe you're happy, could be either, could be both, but what you do know for sure is that you want to wrap yourself in a big, sad, musical blanket. There are many tracks on Serpentine Prison that could certainly be that song for you, but in my opinion, this is one of the best. Sometimes you just want to wallow for a bit in your sadness. Do it with this song. Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger

While certainly not a "new" track (it was released in 2017), it is certainly new to me, and honestly, this is right in my wheelhouse. It's fun, it's catchy, it's electronic, and it makes me want to dance and sing. Really, what more could you want from a song? My Achille's heel will always be catchy, well-produced synthpop/EBM/futurepop, and this song certainly fits the bill. Reset by Torul

Sadly, just a bit ago, Ozzy Osbourne passed , having only recently staged his farewell concert with the other surviving members of Black Sabbath. While I admit that I am far from a metal-head, I certainly respect Ozzy's contribution to music in general, and metal in particular. They were the marred and tarnished flipside of the coin to their peers, Led Zeppelin, and yet, no one else was like them. No one else could be Black Sabbath, and certainly, no one else could have been Ozzy Osbourne. Rest in Peace, Ozzy. Note: I typically post links to music Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays, but made an exception this morning for a programming note to highlight Bandcamp Friday. Tomorrow I will continue posting links to music you can find there, but if anyone deserved to be part of an exception, it was definitely Ozzy.

Hello, dear blog reader! The next Bandcamp Friday will be on August 1, 2025 (more on that here ), so starting tomorrow I will be posting only songs/links to bands/tracks that you can find on Bandcamp. If you love music, please do remember to support independent artists and independent music. Thank you!

I will never not love Childish Gambino "4. Sweatpants." While I knew Donald Glover from his hilarious role on Community and though I knew he had a musical alter ego, I hadn't checked it out immediately. I've been enjoying this song for about seven years now, and I'm glad that this song was shared with me by a former coworker. This track opened my ears to Gambino's/Glover's entire ouevre and I'm a happier music fan for it.

  One of the reasons why I started this blog is because I wanted to highlight songs that, in my opinion, have not been given the opportunity to hit a lot of ears. As to how well this blog accomplishes such is probably dubious at best, but listen, hit songs are hit songs because they're popular. And yeah, I will occasionally be mentioning songs that are/were/or will become hits, I'm not immune to pop music. But this isn't a hit, even though it should be. At this point this track is about 10 years old, so reviving it for the masses is unlikely. That's too bad, because this track, in my humble opinion, is perfect. I have a predispositon to eletronic music, so I may be a bit biased here, but my wonderful partner and our daughters belt out the lyrics to this song any time we hear it. That means something, doesn't it? The keyboards, the lyrics, the passionate vocals that are so much fun to sing along with just work on so many levels.  Like a lightning bolt, kntrlr burst o...

Yes, I mentioned Pixel Grip previously , but I am still absorbing, and loving, their latest album. At first this track comes across as pure synthpop, but as is standard for this band, they refuse to be pigeon-holed. The way vocalist Rita Lukea snarls "split!" throughout the track leans more into the more aggro nature of EBM. Or is it futurepop? Again, Pixel Drip defies classification, but when they're this good, does it really matter? Percepticide: The Death of Reality by Pixel Grip

I see that my entries seem to be getting wordy, so I will attempt to be a bit more pithy. This is a track I go back to on the regular because it's just a fun, catchy rap about appreciating women in all of their various shapes, sizes, colors, creeds, and persuasions. Enjoy!

  I am not immune to pop music, and for me, this is one of those catchy tunes that I come to time and again. One of my friends/coworkers at a former place of employment shared this with me and I not only liked it then, but I keep coming back to it over and over. I think what I like best about it is the simple and pure way it looks at love: "I just wanna get groceries  I'll pray you wanna get close to me I'll give it some, give it some, give it some time But I think we're supposed to be And if you wanna get groceries And if you wanna get close to me Just gimme some, gimme some, gimme some sign I think that we're supposed to be" It's pure pop perfection. Enjoy!

The existence of disruptive voices is important for music and art, and Bob Vylan are definitely that. Maybe you'd heard of them recently due to their appearance at Glastonbury and their controversial set. Yes, they said something that may be conservatively called "aggressive" and perhaps even "inflammatory," but I wouldn't call it antisemitic. To that point: We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine. A machine whose own soldiers were told to use "unnecessary lethal force" against innocent civilians waiting for aid. A machine that has destroyed much of Gaza.   - Bob Vylan on Instragram Me, I've been around long enough to remember another controversial band called NWA releasesed "Fuck Tha Police" almost 40 years ago. That song was met with the same sort of acrimony at the time, but so were Elvis's hips, and the Beatles' mop tops. Music a...

Despite being a fan of Underworld for about 30 years now I actually didn't actually see them perform live until just this year in Chicago. They played so many of their great, classic songs, including this fairly recent song of theirs. You can find it on their most recent album, Strawberry Hotel , which is just as splendid as any of their albums. This song may not be lyrically deep, but it gets my ass moving, which is always a good thing.

Sometime around 2004 I was perusing music on a favorite music blog back then, My Old Kentucky Blog (which appears to now be defunct). I didn't like everything that was posted on the site, but it was always full of new music. I also discovered Sleigh Bells there, but that's another story... Feist's folky-yet-poppy-and-definitely-catchy song "Mushaboom" grabbed me immediately. I consumed this entire album and will most like be posting other tracks from said album during the course of this blog, but this one is the not only my favorite but my first exposure to her and her talents. You may not know this track, but she launched into the stratosphere when her track "1234" from her follow-up albumIt  was included in an iTunes commercial, but again, this is where I think people should start with Feist.

  I first heard Plastikman when I was going to university. I have always loved dance music, everything from disco, Italo, High NRG, house, and techno, so falling in love with Richie Hawtin's brand of minimalist techno was no stretch for me. I distinctly remember going to a local college bar back then and seeing this CD in the jukebox; I would select whatever track was longest to make sure I got my money's worth. Again, this is not a new track, this original album came out way back in 1993. And while I have the original CD somewhere, a 2LP vinyl reissue came out for the album's 30th anniversary in 2023, so of course I scooped that up last year. If you like slow-building boops and beeps that churns along like an accellerating freight train, then this track is for you. Hope you had a great Canada Day!