Uncle Tupelo, “Looking For A Way Out (Demo)”

This comes from the deluxe reissue of Uncle Tupelo’s second album, Still Feel Gone. And, you know what? I’m just going to get sentimental here. I really miss Uncle Tupelo! I know that we ended up with plenty of great music from Tweedy and Farrar, so it’s not some tragedy or anything. And maybe their partnership breaking down is one of the things that unleashed their creativity, sure, sure. But, their alchemy was special, and Uncle Tupelo was brilliant and still touches me. I miss ’em.

Sunless, “Spiraling into the Unfathomable”

Has it been a while since we’ve had extreme metal on here? It seems like it has been. Sunless’s 2021 release, Ylem, is a fine example of the sort of dissonant death metal that I usually go for in the death metal space. While I’m not sure it’s super stuck with me like my favorites in the genre, it’s crunchy and plenty surprising, so I like it.

The Fearless Flyers, “Under the Sea / Flyers Drive”

A lot of covers like this one are basically just to generate the Leo DeCaprio pointing meme - excitement at recognizing a thing and little else. The Fearless Flyers (Cory Wong and Joe Dart of Vulfpeck, Mark Lettieri of Snarky Puppy, and Nate Smith of a whole bunch of jazz projects) are great enough players that it’s fun to listen to them add their flourishes here, but it’s still essentially a disposable track.

Advertisement, “Pretty Money”

I’m a huge Seattle homer, so when I mention that this is a Seattle act, just deflate your ratings appropriately. But after a charming EP (on cassette!), they put out their first LP in 2020, and it’s quite good. Their lineup is pretty extensive (six people), resulting in some nice, full arrangements for their tunes. I don’t know that it’s surprising, but I just enjoy having some rock sometimes, especially from the Pacific Northwest. Listen local!

Bedhead, “Haywire”

Bedhead is the musical equivalent of a weighted blanket.

Lambchop, “The Gusher”

Lambchop is, uh, a velvet smoking jacket, a faded photo of your grandparents, a mostly empty bottle of rye, and a ticket stub for a concert that you can’t actually tell who it was for but you know it was an excellent concert.

PIG, “Valley of the Ignorant”

PIG, meanwhile, is what you get when it’s J.G. Thirlwell who was trapped in amber and they weren’t preoccupied enough with whether they should.

John Oswald, “O’hell (Sir Jim Moron)”

Beyond the disorienting pluderphonics thing being totally in Five Songs’ wheelhouse, anything which calls Jim Morrison a moron is A-OK with us here.

The Melvins, “Honey Bucket”

The Melvins’ 2021 release, Five Legged Dog, is an all-acoustic exploration of their sound. It features songs from across their entire catalog, alongside some assorted covers of other bands. This tune comes from their major label breakthrough (?) Houdini, and it’s fun to hear an alternate take on it like this. It’s impressive how heavy they can get this to sound without the usual roaring amps. This is an inessential record, but any Melvins weirdo needs to hear it.

Golden Dawn Arkestra, “Mama Se”

Any time you hear the word “collective” in relationship with a band, you know you’re in for something. Golden Dawn Arkestra are one of those, from Austin, and are inspired by Sun Ra, trying to do the whole cosmic exploration stuff. Some funk, jazz, Afrobeat, whatever else occurs to them gets thrown in the blender. It’s a lot, and I don’t know, it seems a little unfocused to me. I only have this one record, and I think as a drop-in here, it works, but the whole album is a bit exhausting.

Boogie Down Productions, “I’m Still #1”

The first two BDP records are landmarks in rap. BDP managed to both bring in a lot of the hardcore style that would later be pushed further into gangsta rap, but also introduced a lot of the socially conscious elements that would be picked up by acts like the Native Tongues. The second BDP record in particular demonstrated that KRS-One was still a force even after the tragic death of Scott La Rock between the two albums. You can draw a straight line from this to so much of 90s rap, but KRS-One’s delivery is so strong that it sounds good on its own even without the historical interest.

Eminem, “Guilty Conscience”

I am amused at Dr. Dre playing someone’s guilty conscience.

Bitch Magnet, “Motor”

Oh yeah, that’s the stuff. That late 80s/early 90s production really just connects to me, because of how old I was during that time. Anyway, this is how Bitch Magnet’s first album (Umber) kicked off, and it’s a good record. Ben Hur is probably a little better, but that’s not a knock on this one.

Radiohead, “True Love Waits”

Hmm. I guess maybe Radiohead used Conlon Nancarrow?

Elvis Costello, “(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea”

A friend used to do a bit where he’d refer to song titles or whatever with synonyms or just slightly wrong words, and it always killed me. Two of his titles from This Year’s Model always stuck with me. “Inflate It” and this one, “Chelsea (Fuck It)”.

Report Suspicious Activity, “Goldstein”

Yup, that’s J Robbins in yet another one of his bands that put out a couple albums before calling it good. It’s a good one, but that’s kind of redundant. Where does it rank in the list of bands? Probably below Burning Airlines and Jawbox, but probably above Office of Future Plans and Channels.