This is the newly rebuilt Five Random Songs: chock full of posts, each featuring five random songs from my collection of music. Along with some other junk. Everything is tagged by artist. Poke around some, it’s been here since 2017. Starting in 2026, I shifted to twice-weekly posts with a little longer format. If you want to keep up, you can use RSS, sign up for email, or follow me on Bluesky.
Been a little while since we’ve had any Canadian punk! I’ve missed it! They’re from Vancouver, it’s lovely to have some singing not from a dude, and the guitar work is righteous.
Yeah! More punk! Seattle is basically in southern Canada, I’m going to count it. The live stuff is inessential, but I’ll take any Sicko material I can get.
[Read More]Before he became the best mashup artist around with Night Ripper, Greg Gillis was much more into noise. Yeah, you still have bits and pieces of recognizable songs floating in and out, but this stuff has much more in common with experimental artists like Negativland than it does with the kaleidoscope of party music that he would later create. In other words, don’t go back further than Night Ripper and expect to find more stuff like that.
[Read More]Guest Alec Empire here was a big thing for a hot minute back in, what, 1996 or so. Critics feigned interest in his noisy, overdriven form of techno for a while, but that quickly passed. It lasted long enough for him to pop up in a few places, including on the iffiest track on the first Handsome Boy Modeling School album.
So, if he’s going to wear her to the ball, and he wants her to put on a dress, he…wants to wear a dress? I think that’s what we’re looking at here. Go for it, Dan Vitale! Nobody is going to mind!
[Read More]This is the intro to Scar Sighted, Leviathan’s 2015 album, a fearsome black metal album. Leviathan is the solo band of Jef Whitehead, who is also notable for starting one of the premier metal labels around, Profound Lore. This track is really just a build up to the start of the of the record, so I guess we’ll tackle it properly next time it comes up, along with maybe the controversy surrounding him.
[Read More]uhhhuhuhuhhuhuh…lostbone
Pretty sure I ended up with this as a result of a grab bag of some variety or another. Among all the ways of discovering music, grab bags are certainly one of them. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually discovered a band I love from one of them. I suppose I should try a bunch more just in case.
Also, this appears to be a repeat. Onward!
[Read More]One of the most important songs in my personal history today.
Run-D.M.C. had already declared themselves the Kings of Rock before 1986’s Raising Hell was ever released, but it took “Walk This Way” being a massive hit on both the radio and, more importantly, MTV for Run-D.M.C. to really actually take that throne. This crossover song not only brought rap into countless homes in America for the first time, it also was responsible for resurrecting Aerosmith’s career, so it also has a lot to answer for.
[Read More]Yes, the band is named Skankin’ Pickle. No, there are essentially no depths that the third wave wouldn’t sink to in terms of naming themselves. Yes, this kind of sounds like an outtake from an early Chili Peppers album. But, you know what? They had some good tunes! They really did! One day we’ll get them (today is not that day).
Mike Park of the band also went on to found Asian Man Records, who are, somehow, still going. So have some respect! Or at least as much as you can muster for an outfit named “Skankin’ Pickle”.
[Read More]I dunno, sometimes this stuff just is what it is.
I enjoy all of the songs Ringo sings. There, I said it!
Listen to how shamelessly huge that drum beat is! This band is absolutely not afraid to throw a corny vamp like this on their album, and commit to it completely. Fearlessness is underrated in a rock band.
[Read More]There were more of this sort of filthy song on Wu-Tang Forever than there were on their debut album. And, honestly, this song falls a little flat. It seems to think it can skate by on the explicit lyrics, but everybody’s rhymes here are really kind of by-the-books. Wu-Tang is always at its best when you have some contrast in styles. What’s the point of having this many MCs otherwise!
[Read More]One of the best songs from Take Fountain, the “comeback” album from the Wedding Present that was really them just renaming themselves. Gedge always sounds great in this kind of conversational/confession mode, and the extended outro is nice. This song could easily have been on Watusi, which is a high compliment.
Well, this song certainly takes its time getting going, doesn’t it? And then it sounds like a couple different songs playing at the same time. Honestly, the wall of sound here is sort of the musical equivalent of mumbling really loud. But, I still kind of like it.
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