Mike Munhall

This is, by far, the funniest thing I’ve seen all year.

When it comes to music, I live in a dark, secluded hole. I’m perfectly happy in my place of isolation, but it means that I have no idea what is happening in the mainstream world. For all I know, everything I know about music is common knowledge to surface dwellers. I doubt that, though.

In any case, reverberating throughout my music hobbit recently is three albums by three bands that share the word “post” in their labels (booooooo to labels). Slint has been branded “post-rock”, The Ponys and Big Black “post-punk.”

Big Black – The Hammer Party

If industrial music (think Ministry) was truly a natural progression from the punk era, then Big Black may be one of the reasons it progressed that way. On your first pass through Hammer Party, you may not recognize that the mostly punk-sounding Big Black is using a drum machine. The music is distinctly punk-like, but also sounds very similar to mid-to-late eighties Ministry. Hammer Party is not a party for everyone, but if you’re a fan of punk, industrial or both, you’ll probably like this album. I particularly like the strong vocals, bass lines and hardness of Pigeon Kill (track 8) and Deep Six (track 16).

Slint – Spiderland

Spiderland is a six-track album. The first five tracks are great, but the sixth, Good Morning, Captain, is an ace. The captain in this song is the mariner of the ship in Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The song is about the captain losing his shit as the passengers and crew on the ship die around him. The creepy narrative, monotone vocals and off-key guitars in this track are absolutely haunting and brilliant. The slow-paced first six minutes of the song slowly build up to an intense final 90 seconds. End-to-end, this song is captivating and worth the price of the entire album all by itself.

The Ponys – Laced with Romance

Laced with Romance is a great album from start to finish. I’m not really sure what, specifically, it is about this band and album that I like. It might be the layered nature of the recording or the odd, somewhat nasally vocals, or maybe it’s just the fantastic sound of the guitars. Of the three albums, this one would most likely appeal to the broadest audience. Listen first to Chemical Imbalance (track 8) and then Let’s Kill Ourselves (track 1) to get a feel for The Ponys.

Other than sharing the some sort of same “post” tag, these three bands have one more thing in common: Steve Albini. Albini, in addition to fronting Big Black, recorded albums (not the ones mentioned in this post) for both Slint and The Ponys. He also recorded Surfa Rosa for the Pixies, one of my favorite bands, and many other albums by both well-known and obscure artists. Albini’s ties to all of these bands and albums may be the common thread between all the music that I’ve been enjoying recently.