Recent tussles in my interior monologue with floating head philosopher/Dualism jockey René Descartes have only brought me closer to the anarchic side of my record collection. Descartes (the guy who coined Phil. 101 firestarter “I think therefore, I am”) was a serial rationalist and overclocked brain who provided the world with (a false sense of) critical detachment. I’m under the impression he never got much recourse from the hours he spent cooped up working out proofs of existence. And to this end, I always pictured him listening to something equally devoid of humanity, like Steely Dan (Gaucho, probably). My own playlist contra Descartes consists of a couple lovingly reckless tracks that defy logic and bask in knuckle-dragging brilliance.

Treading a fine line of cock rock revival, and surrounded on all sides by gain, Royal Trux’s “I’m Ready” embraces hedonistic imperatives with legs splayed, Skittle vomit everywhere. From 1998’s genre-pastiche Accelerator, “I’m Ready” is a swaggering, four minute chorus from the ex-noiserockers/junkies. Trux crisscrosses sinewy guitar lines with trickles of bar piano and canned drums, finally dousing it all in a proto-Casblancas fuzz. Frankly, the whole thing sounds like it was recorded on an answering machine. And in a case of minimalist diction, Trux uses a grand total of 16 words in the entirety of the song, which might just be 14 too many.

From their eponymous 1979 debut, The Raincoats’ “Fairytale in the Supermarket” is that paragon of focused confusion. The lyrics follow a narrative of deconstruction, which is to say no narrative at all. But, as they bark reassuringly, “Don’t worry!”, you’re ostensibly supposed to get tied up in Ana da Silva’s sneer and stutter delivery or the manic violin scrapes—which tend towards wailing and, I think, bleating. Ex-Slit Palmolive functions in a perfect drumming binary: standard rock/apeshit drum circle. And when it all comes together, the tenebrist dynamics and musical non-sequiturs, it makes more sense than the dissonant hellfire it should be.

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