Movin’ On

I Sat by the Ocean, Queens of the Stone Age. “I Sat by the Ocean� and the album it belongs to are probably the best things Josh Homme has done outside of his desert sessions. It’s kind of a shame that, aside from maybe “No One Knows,� none of their other songs are quite catchy enough to be #1 hits, because most audiophiles will tell you that they’re kind of the last great rock band. Also, one time I was at a party and Josh Homme covered for me after I spilled some beer on someone’s equipment, so I kind of owe him a good review.

Sing Sing - Ultra Orange, Emanuelle. This is one of those lightning in a bottle collaborative albums. I’ve talked about it before when discussing “Don’t Kiss Me Goodbye,� but it’s the kind of greatness none of the members where able to replicate in their solo careers, sort of like Velvet Underground and Nico. Also, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this song is about being a prisoner in your own relationship and it’s named after one of the most infamous maximum security prisons in the US.
Wolf Like Me, TV On The Radio. Great song, I don’t understand any of the lyrics, which is fine when the song is super catchy chorus earworms, but when it gets into the super long break and you realize there’s another three minutes to go, it becomes a problem.

This Magic Moment, Misfits, Ronnie Specto. Anyone who’s surprised that the Misfits did an entire album of ’50s Doo-Wop covers probably doesn’t know a lot about the Misfits. Their entire aesthetic is based off of the idea, “What if the Monster Mash was a person?� Like if a WWE wrestler had an entirely different family that his wife didn’t know about but that other family was the Munsters. This cover is basically noise rock with a really distinct melody; it would be really easy for this song to get lost in a muddy fog of rock noise but they don’t stray too far from the original composition, so I’d say it actually improves the song as opposed to hindering it.



Miles Erickson is a recent graduate of CalArts, published author, and currently enrolled in a prestigious, 4 year, student loan repayment program but just got a job to pay it off...someday.