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.
Geez, it’s been more than a decade since undun was released. Every now and again, I go look up a band that pops up on here and discover that there are albums they’ve released that I was unaware of. Always a treat! But alas, I was unable to manifest any new Roots records I didn’t already have. I’m sorry I failed you all.
Oh, and I am aware of …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, I just realzed that that might not be clear.
[Read More]Have I done the zalgofied text gag before? Feels like I have. Look folks, I ran out of material about a thousand of these ago. And it’s not like it was good material back then.
Just pure garage rock from the Mono Men, with a tune that closed their second album Wrecker!, although it comes to us courtesy of the comp Back To Mono! Yes, they used a lot of exclamation points. This record collects the first two Mono Men albums into one release, with some minor changes in track order, so it’s a solid pickup. You know, if people still bought CDs or anything. Because it’s not like any of this stuff is available on streaming. Unless you’re in my house. Come on over! We have garage rock and Chex Mix!
[Read More]There’s an extremely 80s feel to Ex Hex. I get a false sense memory of sitting in the back of Monza when we pick up the college radio station at Washington State University, and being intrigued by hearing something a little different from the usual classic rock.
Where are we at on the “the only good Weezer album is Pinkerton” cycle? Seems like we’re due for a reaction to it at this point.
[Read More]A misfire from this record, I just really don’t want to hear Fat Mike singing this, you know?
A real treat! Unsteady put up a handful of unreleased tracks onto the web in 2001 or so, and I managed to grab them and hang onto them for forever. They never released a followup to their masterful Double or Nothing, so these four tracks are the only things we have. More than I think anybody else in the third wave, they’re the band that I wanted to hear more from. Alas.
[Read More]I wonder what the Junior Allstars sound like?
I think last time, we talked about ambient, and how it doesn’t always work that well for me. Well, let’s see if anything has changed, because we have ten minutes of it to listen to together! I’ll see you on the other side, if I’m still awake.
What’s the opposite of ambient? Anyway, I’m awake now!
[Read More]I just looked and realized that Cor-Crane Secret, the first Polvo album, is missing fromy my library. I’m not sure where it went, I absolutely had the CD back in the day. Lost? Never got ripped? Dropped on the floor during one of the library’s migrations from place to place? Who knows? But thanks to the magic of Bandcamp, I can replace it. And Shapes, which was also missing. It’s Polvo day here!
[Read More]Pretty sure this is a repeat!
This is also a repeat!
(That’s a lie, I just don’t want to figure out anything to say about the National. Don’t want to make people mad!)
La Gritona were a noise rock band out of Boston, active in the second half of the 90s, who put out one album and some EPs before ending things. And they smoke, all heavy skronk and yelling, exactly the kind of stuff that’s up my alley. But I had no idea they existed, because by the time their album came out in 1997, I was out of college and slowly losing touch with music. Luckily, their entire catalog was compiled together into a re-release in 2010, where a postiive review brought it to my attention. And maybe this will bring them to someone else’s attention, because this stuff rules.
[Read More]With the strings here, this is reading very “late Stax” to me, or perhaps Curtis Mayfield. Interestingly, it’s an era of soul that for the most part hasn’t seen as much of a revival as earlier Stax or Motown. I’m not sure why that is, exactly, although perhaps the lusher arrangements are just harder to put together for independent artists.
You first, the Queers!
[Read More]Big same, Beatles.
Do I need to hear “Jikan no Hashi” for this song to make sense?
Abstract hip-hop artist DJ Krush’s 1996 MiLiGHT featured a bunch of collaborations, resulting in a bit of an uneven record. But at the heart of it are always his jazzy beats, so it’s still a pleasant listen.
Well, that’s pointless.
[Read More]Made it to May! Seemed like April lasted for double the usual days this year.
I’m not sure I would have placed this in the past, but you know what? I’m getting some pretty heavy Yes vibes off of this.
Sometimes, I wish I was enough of a professional to click onto my own tags and read what I’d already written about bands. But, I’m not, so I have to rely on my own crummy memory. I don’t want to repeat the same stories about bands, but I also don’t want to work any harder than I do for this thing. So here we are, I’m writing nonsense and you’re left with a meta comment here instead of something useful. Or even “useful”. Well, anyway, the song is over!
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