Belle and Sebastian, “The Stars of Track and Field”

The opening to my favorite Belle and Sebastian record, and therefore one of my favorite records period. We listen to a lot of really rancid shit around here, all grind this and noise that, and broadly engage deeply with the ugliness of music. The jagged edges and novel noises keep things fresh and surprising, and there’s an exhilaration in listening to that kind of stuff that is a consistent pleasure. But, at the same time, it’s also worth balancing all that savagery with something from the beautiful end of things, a reminder that music can lift spirits.

Crudbump, “Bite That Butt”

What can you say in the presence of true art?

Screeching Weasel, “Hey Suburbia”

I spend a fair bit of time kind of complaining about Screeching Weasel, and that’s probably a little unfair. This is from their second record, Boogadaboogadaboogada!, and it’s a lot of fun. Yes, very basic punk, but plenty of energy and it gets in and out.

The Isley Brothers, “Tell Me When You Need It Again, Parts 1 & 2”

An oddity of Go For Your Guns is that the first four tracks are all two-part songs. I’m not entirely sure why that was - formatting things for easier radio play, perhaps? We don’t have to worry about that, so we can just let the funk linger in our ears. Isn’t that nice?

Elvis Costello, “New Amsterdam”

This song is actually a demo that Costello recorded, and then included directly on the record instead of re-recording it. The result is one of the more distinctive songs on the album, a minimal arrangement that ends up letting the clarity of the melody shine through.

Girl Talk, “Still Here”

It’s always a little strange to hear one of the Girl Talk songs out of the context of the albums. It shouldn’t be, because they’re such chameleons, but the progression of songs is burned into my brain so it throws me off. In other news, I love the bit from The Band on this track.

Has-Lo, “Everything Is”

The minimal beat here really works well. Not every song can get by on something like this, but Has-Lo pulls it off.

Girls Against Boys, “(I) Don’t Got A Place”

A thing I sometimes wonder about is the extent to which I contradict myself in the archives here. After writing as many entries for songs and bands, I’m sure I’ve said stuff in the past that can’t be reconciled. And I thought to myself, “hey, this is from the Touch & Go records, the last good ones they made, but this isn’t their best record”. I checked the archive, six articles with them, and you know what? 100% consistent! I call the album before this one my favorite from them, twice, and mention that the last Touch & Go record is their last good record. From this sample of one, I can conclude that I’m totally consistent.

Samiam, “Blank Expression”

Samiam, the melodic punk band from Berkley, came out of the gate more or less fully formed. While I think their mid-career albums would be stronger and more refined, their first album still was solid work. I think Samiam was a little too early to catch on to the emo revival that would happen later, and so they’re kind of forgotten today.

Mustard Plug, “Away From Here”

I told my only real Mustard Plug story already, and I don’t want to tell it again. It’s sad! I think it’s understandable that I stopped listening after that, but I gotta say, this is a good little tune. It’s pretty Bosstones, but I like that sound. It’s not their fault they were part of the soundtrack to one of the worst nights of my life.

Marlowe, “Spring Kick”

Marlowe, the collaboration between L’Orange and Solemn Brigham, put out their second album (entitled Marlowe 2) and continued in the same vein. It’s all gnarly breakbeats, surprising samples, and rapid-fire rhymes. Lovely stuff.

Hybrid, “Doomed to Failure”

There are a lot of bands named Hybrid, if you go looking for them. This one is the extreme metal band from the US who put out a couple of albums and disappeared. It’s more like tech death metal than anything, although they’re clearly going for a blend of a lot of different things. This bit where other, non-metal genres are blended in can work, but it’s tricky, and I’m not really sure they pull it off.

Periphery, “The Gods Must Be Crazy!”

Just pure progressive metal here, with the clean singing and studio wizardry that are hallmarks of the genre. This stuff can be really hit or miss for me - for every Coheed & Cambria or The Ocean that hit for me, there’s a, uh, Periphery that doesn’t connect. It’s hard for me to put my finger on why, exactly, other than maybe the songs. This feels to me like it exists only as a showcase for instrumental prowess.

Steady Earnest, “Swim”

At this point in Five Songs’ evolution, we’ve had more than 1500 bands on here, and I honestly cannot recall which ones I’ve introduced properly and which ones I have not. The tags help some - if I haven’t tagged a band, I haven’t introduced them! - but are not perfect. Because sometimes I write random shit instead of talking about the band. This is where a more professional approach here would help. I could go back and look at entries for bands and figure out if I’ve said anything real about them. But let’s be honest: that’s not going to happen.

Killdozer, “Pour Man”

Killdozer were not a joke band. But they were a band that was never really being serious, with Michael Gerald’s vocal delivery on this thing being a good example. Why is he singing like this? Because it’s silly. Does it make the song silly? Well, not really? Kinda?

Beck, “Guess I’m Doing Fine”

Beck, on the other hand, is clearly a joke act.

Smut Peddlers, “Stank MCs”

OK, I’ll let the listener decide if this is a joke act.

Yazz Ahmed, “Bloom”

Yazz Ahmed is a jazz trumpeter and I have two albums from her that I really like. Wish I could describe them, but you know, I don’t know shit about jazz.

Death Grips, “Birds”

This is a great example of the unpredictability of Death Grips. Nothing about this song really makes sense, but it’s all intentional and hits the effect they wanted to achieve. That is, disorientation.