Shuffled: Side Project Trumping Edition

Every other Wednesday I hit the shuffle button on my 90 gigabytes of music and post the results. I might have to justify some of the stuff in my library, but hopefully it will help inform you of new music -- Or at least be entertaining.

For all of the times that I write descriptions like, "I've barely listened to this at all. I really should listen to it more." -- this is actually a randomly-created playlist I can really sink my teeth into. There's some old theatrical rock from the 80s, some punk that I listen to in a completely different context than I'm sure it was written for, and two side project bands that I probably like more than the original bands they spawned from. If you only listen to one song on this edition of Shuffled, at least make it the fourth. Now, HAVE AT IT!



#1: Oingo Boingo - Weird Science
From Best O'Boingo. Buy it here.

I think of Oingo Boingo as the World/Inferno Friendship Society of the 80s. Yeah, I should probably think of that the other way around, but I knew about World/Infero first, so it's my twisted way of thinking. If you don't know, they are the theatrical-like rock band of one Danny Elfman -- composer of just about any movie or TV show theme you can think of, or, at least a lot of them.

#2: The Unseen - Police Brutality
From Lower Class Crucifixion. Buy it here.

Good ol' fashioned street punk is some of my favorite music to listen to when I need to concentrate on things. I know it sounds kind of weird, but when I'm tired and the ambient jams of some post-rock band are putting me to sleep, I crank some Casualties or Unseen. It's great to mindlessly rock out to while not distracting from the task at hand. The State of Discontent and Explode are my favorite Unseen albums, but Lower Class Crucifixion is pretty good as well.

#3: Pennywise - The Competition Song
From The Fuse. Buy it here.

Honestly, I missed out on early Pennywise, got really into Land of the Free?, and then stopped listening to stuff after that. So, my knowledge of Pennywise is very brief and specific. I remember The Fuse just being, alright -- but I probably didn't give it much of a chance.

#4: Kiss Me Quick - Sherman
From The Mastodon. Buy it here.

One of the few local bands that Michiganders can point to as being from their home state and not feel complete shame are Mustard Plug. Personally, I've never been very into them, with the exception of Pray for Mojo. The drummer's brief side project, though? I'm all about that band.

Kiss Me Quick was pretty short lived, but their only CD remains one of my favorites ever. I was lucky enough to see them live, amidst five other local bands I had never heard of, and they impressed me enough seek out their album online.

Funny anecdote: Mustard Plug's bassist and drummer were on this terrible local TV show that used to run in the middle of the night, called Text Me TV. Basically they'd just get college girls and occasionally one guy, to talk about stupid stuff while people texted in. Anyway, I sent in a text asking about more Kiss Me Quick, and the drummer seemed flabbergasted. Sadly, he pretty much shot down any chance of future releases. I think there's some bad blood there. A shame.

#5: Morning Glory - It'll Get Better
From This is No Time Ta Sleep. Buy it here.

Even though Leftover Crack is one of my favorite punk bands, I've noticed something. The side project of lead-singer Stza... isn't very good. And every time LOC puts something out, every song that Stza writes is meh, and every song that Ezra writes is pretty great. So, since Morning Glory is Ezra's side project, I'm really looking forward to them actually putting out a full-length.

This CD was done entirely by Ezra, but he has since made Morning Glory into a real band. They've just been dragging their feet about putting out a full-length. Their EP, The Whole World is Watching, was amazing -- and all of the demos I've heard for their (seemingly eternally) upcoming full length are also amazing. I'm just tired of waiting for it.