HELLO FROM THE FUTURE

It’s time to get ahead on writing this blog. Gonna try and keep a strong update pace. There’s a virtue in steadiness and predictability, which will help me build an audience. Which I will absolutely fail to do because the blog is ofputting and strange, the music is unappealing, and I am blazingly inept at self-promotion.

HIT IT PLEXASAURUS REX!

Man or Astro-Man?, “U-235/PU-239”

A relative rarity here, with mostly instrumental surf/sci-fi rockers Man or Astro-Man? turning in some vocals. But it’s all reverbed out and the drums are echo-y, so it’s all good with me. I also just learned that they put out a record in 2013, time to go check that one out.

As long as I’m resurrecting various hobbies and activities, for anybody that is curious, I’ve got a game design that I’ve been working on that’s pretty far along. I’ve been blogging about it on my other site, with the articles available here. I actually just made what I think is potentially a very cool rules change, and I can’t wait to try it out. OK! Let’s crank up the tunes!

Rocket From the Crypt, “Birdman”

For most of the summer, I’ve been listening to a lot of punk and various punk-inflected rock bands. It’s kind of me circling back to one of my forever loves in music, driven by discovering see/saw. It’s a genre that really just kind of thrives on execution, which is funny for a genre with a reputation for sloppiness. But execution doesn’t mean precision, just that the band’s songs, energy, and approach have to be aligned for things to really work.

Hey, if for some reason you’re reading this, and you used to read via RSS, please note you’ll have to delete the feed and re-add it after the server rebuild. Of course, if you tracked this via RSS, I don’t know how you would be seeing this in order to find this out. Because I also posted it on Bluesky, which seems like the only other place you’d find out about this post, and I told people to do that over there. So, I dunno. This is pointless. Everything about Five Songs is pointless. Let the yawning intentionless void consume you!

Lots of server maintenance this weekend - if anything seems off, let me know! (There’s nobody reading this.) Anyway, I think things are working properly. Mostly, it shouldn’t affect this blog, it’s primarily my discord bots today, which I think are all operational again. So let’s have some tunes!

Turnstile, “Glow On”

You know, a mystery I never got around to really solving is whether or not Plex’s randomizer has a preference for track ones. It probably doesn’t, I probably mostly just notice when it happens as opposed to some other random track. Especially because track ones have a stronger tendency to be intros/skits/other types of non-real songs. Plus, of course, every record on here has a track one, while they’re not guaranteed to have any other tracks. That said? It sure seems like they come up more than they should. Which is just proof that I’m a big, dumb idiot.

I’ve been getting that itch again. It comes and goes, the urge to write here, and it’s unclear what’s causing it. I think it’s a combination of Music League, finding a new music newsletter to subscribe to, and getting some tunes corralled for a music library for my daughter. But whatever it is, I decided to jump back in here!

Which is when I discovered that this blog needed updates badly, and I wasn’t entirely sure how to get it upgraded, and the next thing I know I’m rebuilding the server, re-figuring out how to configure stuff…nobody cares. Anyway, I think it’s working again? We’re gonna find out, because it’s time for Five Songs! Back in the saddle baby! How in the hell do I write these things?

No, Five Songs isn’t back, not really. Probably soon, though. Why not! I figured out how to make emails on these things work, which would be nice. No, instead I’m taking a break from writing on my newly resurrected gaming blog about my new in-progress game design to write about music a bit. And this seems like the right place? Geez, why am I plugging my gaming blog here? Nobody reads either of these things.

The Good, The Bad & The Queen, “Herculean”

This is one of Damon Albarn’s side projects, kind of a supergroup. And it was sort of the record that convinced me that maybe Damon Albarn’s stuff isn’t really my jam. It’s not like I don’t like this or anything, but it doesn’t excite me either. And I think that’s mostly true of his other work: I have no objection to Blur or Gorillaz, but I don’t seek any of them out either. Just not for me (and not for lack of trying).

Lily Allen, “Lost My Mind”

I really liked the first Lily Allen album, as a bubbly and charming piece of pop that borrowed some elements of ska to add to her confections. Really quite a delightful album. I have largely gotten diminishing returns from each subsequent record, though. This is, to my ears, a pop song that doesn’t really excite me about anything. It might be great, I dunno, it’s just not for me.

Dr. Dre, “Mix Tape 2 Track 1”

My understanding is that this is from a mix tape that Dre used to sell at the Compton Swap Meet, which eventually made its way onto the internet. I’ve got three of these things, and it’s a delight to just hear this stuff in its raw form. Enjoy!

Farside, “Search for Ourselves”

Farside is one of the reasons I stopped making playlists on YouTube. I used to find tracks on the service, and if they were missing, I’d upload it to an unlisted video and add it to my playlist. It was kind of useful to have them there, but a problem that would happen is that the content ID system there would flag stuff. Fine, whatever, other people should get any (non-existant) royalties. But sometimes, labels or artists would have songs as prohibited uploads, so I just couldn’t host some songs there. Pain in the ass! Oh, also YouTube is a cesspool.