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.
On The Pretty Toney Album, Ghostface really broke out from the shadow of the Wu-Tang Clan. Not that he transcended it or anything, but this record is really off on its own thing, it doesn’t really sound like a Wu-Tang record. Other than Ghostface’s presence, of course. But I think that’s a good thing, it’s enabled him to have a great career, with no real barriers to where he wanted to go. Because of that, it’s probably my second favorite Ghostface record.
[Read More]The second Baroness record, Blue Record, seems to my ears like it’s a more confident album than the first one. Alongside that confidence is a willingness to make things a little prettier. It’s a little more prone to doing stuff that soars just a bit more than the previous album.
Damn, that guitar squeal, so good. And Kendrick coming in on “you wanna see a dead body?” is absolutely incredible.
[Read More]You know, I never really gave this album a real shot. The previous album seemed so sour and included some really bad lyrics, so after buying this one due to inertia, I never really engaged with it. This is a decent tune, though. I wonder what I’d think if I went back and gave it a whirl at this point. It doesn’t make the lyrics go away, though.
[Read More]Fun DMC is such a good album name.
After a ten year break between releasing any music under the name Clem Snide, Eef Barzelay released Forever Just Beyond in 2020, and it’s a delight. Probably my favorite of his releases since Soft Spot. The songs are sweet, the production is intimate, and it’s all melancholy and warm and cozy. It’s a lazy nap in a sunbeam, with maybe a wistful dream drifting through your head.
[Read More]We’ve had this one before.
One of the more memorable tunes from 69 Love Songs, probably due to the vocals, but I do like the guitar part on it as well.
Ah, Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard. Say it soft, and it’s almost like praying. Say it loud, and there’s stoner metal playing. Anyway, here’s ten minutes of fuzz, enjoy!
[Read More]Matt Pike had a big 2018. In addition to Sleep emerging from a fifteen year, uh, slumber to produce the very good The Sciences, he also put out a High on Fire record, Electric Messiah. High on Fire is one of the more consistent bands around, and so it is with this record: you’re going to get a Lemmy-esque bark, you’re going to get those big stoner riffs, and you’re going to get some solos. Just a crunchy good time.
[Read More]Odd Future was a whole thing that is one of the earliest pop culture things that I might have liked but that I feel totally missed me. I know some vague things about it, that Tyler, the Creator was kind of the center, and that Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatshirt were involved. But, I dunno, I guess the rest of it all just sailed right past me. That said, I really like Earl Sweatshirt’s stuff, so I probably should go back and listen to Odd Future. I mean, if there are records with the collective on it. I dunno, man, I’m out of touch here.
[Read More]Vulfpeck, the funk band that met in Michigan and is now in LA, have just been moving their own way through the music industry from the beginning. They’ve self-released their stuff, they’ve produced a ton of releases not always neatly organized in albums, there are a bunch of related acts that they release music from, and it’s all frankly kind of inspiring that they’ve had success kind of creating their own cottage industry.
[Read More]Super straightforward garage rock out of Australia, the Cosmic Psychos have been banging out records since 1987. According to Discogs, they’re apparently still out there making a ruckus - they have a release in 2021. My contact with them is isolated to the early 90s, when they were releasing records on Amphetamine Reptile Records, and I enjoy those albums as the pretense-free punchers that they are. I’m not sure I need to check out their recent work, though.
[Read More]Is cake slow? I don’t think of cake as a particularly slow food. I suppose it takes a while to pre-heat the oven, bake the thing, let it cool, and then decorate it. So…maybe they are slow. But they’re not what I think of when I think of slow food. Beyond the obvious molasses, I think of, say, smoking things as slow.
The band Cake isn’t really slow either.
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