Psychic Temple Plays Planet Caravan

I did not grow up listening to Black Sabbath, so I had no idea what to expect when I saw that the Big Ego Record Club had this slated as part of the 2022 lineup. But this soaring instrumental post-jazz post-rock cover of the Black Sabbath quickly became one of my most-played tracks. Featuring Tortoise’s Jeff Parker on guitar, this is somehow super chill yet with monster riffs that trade off between brass and guitars. The B-side is an original that matches the vibe perfectly. Absolutely one of my favorite records.

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

So as previously mentioned, I did not grow up listening to Black Sabbath. The news this week, about Ozzy Osbourne (fantastic obituary here by The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle) made me look this up. I clicked through a handful of albums, and, amazingly, this was the only album that I recognized songs from, and I knew the first four songs (two from Guitar Hero, one from the above record, and one from the first MCU movie). Anyway, this album rules. I’d been a Led Zeppelin kid, and if I’d heard this around the same time, I might have had a whole different trajectory.

Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun

So I listened to Yo La Tengo all weekend and most of this last week, which was helpful because it was a very stressful several days. Summer Sun was considered an outlier when it came out in 2003, much more mellow and less distorted than their work before or after. But it was my first album of theirs, and its extreme chill has a special place in my heart. Little Eyes might be one of my all-time favorite songs, and I’ve taken to calling the insanity of last few months (plus this current month) the Season of the Shark after the track.

Yo La Tengo - We Have Amnesia Sometimes

This was an insta-buy for me when it came out in 2020. I mean, part of it was the element of supporting musicians during the pandemic, but a bigger part of it is that this is five tracks of crushing instrumental ambient guitar noise by a band who absolutely have the capacity to produce an incredible cacophony of noise but who often do not. Part of me wishes this was motorik jams like Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Godkind from I Am Not Afraid… but most of me loves this for what it is: beautiful, calming, melodic noise.