Some titans today.

Crazy Baldhead, “Funky Drummer”

A repeat! No regrets! Bring on the juice!

Rob Swift, “Hip Hop On Wax”

A member of the X-Ecutioners, Rob Swift is a turntablist from New York who has had a long solo career as well. Always rooted in the traditions of hip-hop, his records feature his pyrotechnic scratching, which is worth seeking out just on its own. The overall quality of his albums often tends to be driven by the quality of the guests he’s working with, with this being an example of one of his better tracks. If you like the sound of this, try out one of his early albums (this is from Sound Event).

I don’t have a lot to say today.

Man Or Astro-Man?, “Lo Batt”

Man Or Astro-Man? made (mostly) instrumental rock, in sort of a surf rock vein, but with this kind of retro-future 50’s thing going on. Their records were pretty similar and uniformly good, so you can just start with one at random and it’ll work out fine. This is from Made From Technetium, for the record.

The Drapels, “Wondering (When My Love Is Coming Home)”

I think the bit where soul artists would name a song something short and pithy and then whack on some big ol’ parenthetical to the name is adorable. More bands should do that.

Some good stuff today.

Pond, “Wheel”

My favorite bands to highlight here are those that haven been largely forgotten, maybe because they were on the periphery of their scenes, and never really left the kind of critical mark that makes future listeners discover them among the thousands of bands of the past. Portland’s Pond is a great example of that. Pond began making records for Sub Pop during the height of grunge, with their first album coming out in 1993. It was a great time to get discovered, yes, but it was also a hard time to stand out among all the bands chasing fame. Like Flop, Pond just got lost in the suffle, and they deserved better. Their first, self-titled album was, yes, pretty grungy, but it was also tuneful in ways that hinted something greater to come. And their second album, The Practice of Joy Before Death, fulfilled that promise. Fantastic songs, great, jagged guitars, just an amazing record. One of my very favorites to come out of the entire grunge scene. They recorded one more fantastic record, Rock Collection, for a major label before breaking up. All three albums are worth your time.

Here’s today.

Mudhoney, “Beneath The Valley Of The Underdog”

A little bit of a slow burn, psychedelic number from Mudhoney here. This comes from Tomorrow Hit Today as well as appearing on the compilation March To Fuzz, which I believe I’ve sung the praises of before. I’m not going to check, as professionalism isn’t something we really go in for here at Five Songs. Which, you know, explains our love for Mudhoney.

Today!

Jurassic 5, “Sum Of Us”

I wish I could bottle the first verse of this song, just so I could always have it handy when I need it. Just, absolutely nailed.

Isaac Hayes & David Porter, “Ain’t That Loving You (For More Reasons Than One)”

Here we have Isaac Hayes really sounding a lot like what I think people think of when they think “Isaac Hayes”. Well, OK, most people probably think of “Theme From Shaft”. But beyond that, the song in their head probably sounds like this. This is from pretty late in the Stax run, from the early 70s.

Another good one today!

Belle & Sebastian, “I Fought In A War”

Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant was Belle & Sebastian’s first real misstep as a band. Stuart Murdoch ceded a lot of songwriting control to the rest of the band, and the results were not super inspiring. There are some highlights on the record, and I still like it, but there are also too many so-so songs on the album. This song, the opener, is one of the highlights though.

Today’s music.

Algiers, “untitled”

The last track from their self-titled debut album from a few years ago, Algiers combined furious post-punk with a whole host of other influences, fusing into a wholly original album. It was one of the very best albums of 2015, and proof that there were still surprises left in rock (of course, I’ve always thought that). They followed it up with another great album a couple years later, and are one of the bands that I really hope keeps going for a while. Hopefully we’ll hear plenty from them around here as well.

All over the map today.

Dr. Ring-Ding & The Senior Allstars, “green pepper”

All I can think about for the intro to this song is that this is authentic third-wave gibberish.

Chain Reaction, “Even If”

Well, it’s happened again: I have no recollection of how this metal album ended up in my collection. As I re-started paying attention to metal, about nine or so years ago, I ended up with a few grab bags and bundles, and I didn’t always digest every album in them. I think this must have been included in one of them.

Damn, good one today.

PJ Harvey, “Hair”

Last time we heard from PJ Harvey, we got “Sheela Na Gig” from Dry. That song smokes, of course. And this is the song right after it on that album! What I’m trying to say here is that this record is amazing.

Ne’er Do Wells, “Green Blooded Love”

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but there was a period of time where I bought more or less everything Lookout Records put out. This wasn’t a great policy. Aside from ending up with considerably more pop punk than I needed, there was some pretty low wattage stuff down roster on that label. This album being a good exhibit. This is from a split LP, and as you can hear, this is just straight ahead vintage rock. It’s inoffensive, but also pretty unexciting.

Today!

Mu330, “Around You”

There’s sort of a darker edge to this song, with the horns especially, which is fairly unusual among the third-wave bands that were Mu330’s peers. Of course, this isn’t ska, this is rock with horns.

Beck, “Strange Apparition”

Mostly, I look goofy, funky Beck more than the other versions of Beck, so I’m more drawn to those albums where he lets that side loose. The Information is the followup to Guero (which is one of the ones I like), so I was clearly hoping for more of the same. And, it’s not really the same. It’s not as loose, as spontaneous. But, you know, some of it works. Listen to how beautiful the production on this song is!