Hot damn, some great songs today.

Sleep, “Some Grass”

Sleep is one of the titans of doom metal, as we’ve talked about in the context of High on Fire. But, alas, this is just a little throwaway on Sleep’s Holy Mountain, so we’ll have to wait for another day to really bear witness to the majesty of their good stuff.

The Delgados, “Witness”

The Delgados came out of the same Glasgow scene that birthed Belle & Sebastian and Arab Strap. And, like Belle & Sebastian, their take on pop evolved from something more folk oriented to something much more orchestrated. This comes from The Great Eastern, the peak of their discography, although they were always good.

Three months in the books, three months of Five Songs every day! And we’re still rollin’!

The Clash, “Remote Control”

Have we talked about the Clash’s debut album yet? What separated the Clash from so much of the rest of the new punk scene is that the Clash brought more than just energy and fury to their music. And while early punk should be lauded for how egalitarian it was, and for its emphasis on just getting out there and doing it, the Clash really demonstrated what happened when you took that DIY ethos and married it to some tremendous songs.

Four new bands! And a reminder, if you have thoughts about the future of Five Songs, let me know!

The Counts, “Pack Of Lies”

There are endless great soul records out there from the 70s, and even with how many of these records have been revived by hip-hop artists, there are always still more to discover. J-Zone has mentioned several times that What’s Up Front That Counts by the Counts is one of his favorites, and goddamn, of course it’s great. Also, dig that bit that Dre flipped on “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?”!

We’re a couple of weeks away from the first birthday of Five Songs. I’m thinking about changing up the format a little. Anybody have any thoughts? Here’s today’s music.

Freeway, “Hear The Song”

While I think Freeway usually has great beats, this is not one them. This song just feels kind of disjointed.

The Dead Kennedys, “I Am The Owl”

This comes from the second Kennedys full-length, Plastic Surgery Disasters, which is probably the album in their discography that I hear the least about. It’s not the debut, which was the most purely hardcore of their albums, and it doesn’t have as much of the baroque strangeness of their later releases. But, like all their albums, it’s still very good, and worthy of listening to.

I had to upload three of these songs myself. You know you’re in for the good stuff!

Lawsuit, “Thank God You’re Doing Fine”

I just noticed now that I have a typo in the song title for my rip of this song. Huh. Anyway, Lawsuit were a local band that my friend Bill encountered in Davis, CA. They played a super fun sort of horn-and-bongo-driven rock. They never got any kind of national profile at all, or really anything outside of California, but they put out an album and EP that are both brilliant. One of the band member, KC Bowman, has showed up here before. Paul Sykes, the singer who also contributed to the songwriting, in particular was a real treasure. His mix of bounciness and despair was unique, and there’s nobody really quite like this band.

Today!

Bob Marley, “Fussing and Fighting”

I find myself listening to early Bob Marley more than his later, better produced stuff. Something about the raw nature of these recordings really appeals to me.

Buzzkill, “Me”

Are Buzzkill sending up Slint here? I think they might be sending up Slint. We haven’t had Slint yet. I used to sit around in the dark in my dorm room in college and listen to Slint’s Spiderland and just feel so goddamn sorry for myself. It’s really good, y’all!

If I wanted to point to a “lol random!” kind of playlist, today might be the day.

Minutemen, “Tension”

This song, from The Punch Line, really shows off what made the Minutemen so great. Listen to that rhythm section! Listen to D Boon hanging back on guitar until he can come in for maximum effect! And it’s only 1:20! That this is from their debut album makes it all the more impressive.

A couple of sweet hip-hop beats today.

Quasimoto, “Blitz”

You can just hear the dust on the vinyl on that drum loop. And that sax! My god, for a short track, this is just great. Madlib is a genius.

G.E. Smith & The Saturday Night Live Band, “Sloozy”

I can just picture the faces G.E. Smith is pulling while playing this song. Which led me here, for pictures of guitarists making faces. Also, apparently G.E. Smith is a big Trump supporter, as I learned from the search “G.E. Smith making faces”.

Really excellent set today.

They Might Be Giants, “Whirlpool”

A b-side on the “Why Does The Sun Shine” single, I’ve always loved this song. I don’t think they’ve put it on anything else, so this counts as a little bit of a rarity.

Green Day, “409 In Your Coffee Maker”

A very early song from Green Day, this originally appeared on the “Slappy” EP, and was later included on 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, the compilation that combined the LP 39/Smooth with “Slappy” and another EP, “1,000 Hours”. It’s a solid collection of songs, one that really showed the potential for the band that later turned into massive stars.

Six songs today!

Amon Tobin, “Precursor”

One of the big trends of rap beats was taking old soul music and speeding it up so that it sounds like the Chipmunks. Here, Amon Tobin sounds like he’s doing kind of the same thing, only with cartoon sound effects. Why not?

Arsonists, “Underground Vandal”

Beautiful drum loop on this song.

Negativland, “Fruitcakes, Suka-Brand Coffee, Power Failure, Citizens Band Parakeet etc.”

Negativland hosted a show called Over The Edge on Berkley’s KPFA, providing an outlet for surreal radio strangeness. I actually caught the show once while going to camp in Berkeley, and it was a mess but also entertaining. They also put out a set of (lightly) edited shows on CD, and I have a bunch of those. This is from Volume 6, the Wilsaphone Stupid Show, which was pieced together out of old found audio and family recordings from David “The Weatherman” Wills. What you hear on this, um, song is pretty representative of Over the Edge in general.