Albert King, “Born Under a Bad Sign”

Majestic. I’m just going to fuck this up if I try and write something.

Chemical Brothers, “Block Rockin’ Beats”

Last time we had a track from this album, I expressed mystification that the Chemical Brothers had a moment. But you know what? This song is a fuckin’ force of nature, of course it was huge. Listen to it!

Indian Handcrafts, “Starcraft”

We’re big fans of noisy duos here at Five Songs, so of course Indian Handcrafts is up our alley. They’re more towards the Melvins end of things, putting them in the vicinity of Big Business more than anybody. Big stoner vibes, and huge riffs. It’s impressive that this is just a guitar and drums.

Thou, “Sifting”

Thou released a bunch of stuff in 2020. One of them was a compilation of Nirvana covers that they’d released in various other places, gathered together as Blessings of the Highest Order. This, of course, is the last song from Bleach, and it’s a real punisher here. The entire album is a good time.

Head of David, “Bugged”

Head of David is notable mostly for inspiring a bunch of other bands, not to mention being Justin Broadrick’s proving ground for the sound he would later refine as Godflesh. As for the band itself, a lot of their stuff sounds pretty leaden, but this track is pretty good.

Joe & Barbara, “You’re Astounding”

This comes from very late in the Stax run, from 1975, just before the label’s bankruptcy brought things to a close.

Aceyalone, “Five Feet”

Aceyalone was one of the founders of the Freestyle Fellowship, which we just had the other day. He went solo and had a string of albums ranging from solid to excellent. This comes from his 2001 album Accepted Electric, which is probably my favorite solo album of his.

The High Back Chairs, “Miles To Inches”

Jeff Nelson is one of the co-founders of Discord Records, as well as the drummer for the legendary Minor Threat, a legacy that would be the envy of so many people. I was just listening to Minor Threat the other day, and it still holds up incredibly well.

He also drummed in the High Back Chairs.

Anagnorisis, “This Cursed Blood”

While listening to metal might not be good for much in terms of self-enrichment, if you look up band and song names, it’ll at least increase your vocabulary.

Ghost Bath, “Golden Number”

There’s a continuum in music that relies heavily tremelo picking going from black metal at one end to shoegaze at the other end. The placement of any band on this spectrum kind of comes down to the vocals, the use of dissonance, the melodies (if any), and the production. And bands can move around on the spectrum (Alcest, for instance). Ghost Bath isn’t pure black metal, so they’ve moved along that spectrum some. “Blackgaze” is sometimes used for these sorts of bands, and I can’t decide if that’s a good name or not.

Einstürzende Neubauten, “Nagorny Karabach”

Alles Wieder Offen (“All Open Again”) represents Neubauten fully completing their new model of creating albums. In 2002, Neubauten wanted to get themselves total creative freedom to create the music they wanted, without any label interference. They managed to get 2,000 people signed up at $35 a piece, which was enough to fund some sessions. Those recordings would turn into Supporter Album No. 1, which I have a copy of somewhere around here. However, the band turned to Mute records to turn it into a full release (Perpetuum Mobile, which re-worked some of the songs from it), which allowed them to fund a tour.

The Beatles, “Birthday”

Stupid Beatles! It’s not my birthday! Or this blog’s birthday, which is a day off of mine! I can’t put them in charge of anything.

christian fitness, “all ghosts to medicine counter four”

When you make really elaborate song or album names, it can easily tip over into pretension or tweeness. Andrew Falkous does a really good job with it, though. I mean, this album is called Love Letters In The Age of Steam. That’s really good!

Dr. Ring-Ding and the Senior All-Stars, “Big Man”

Love a trombonist/singer!

Madvillain, “Curls”

Madvillain, the collaboration between MF Doom and Madlib, is such an incredible record, it’s a shame that there’s no followup to it. This is a great example of the wizardry - it’s only a minute and a half, but the beat sounds amazing and Doom is on top of his game, so it feels like a whole song. With the belated announcement of Doom’s death last year, this is a perfect time to listen to this album again.

Rapeman, “Monobrow”

The disconnected guitar skronk at the front of this song is weirdly something that kind of sticks with me. I think because it kind of lays bare what noise rock kind of sounds like when its stripped of all the layers. And, of course, when the rest of the band joins in, it’s thunderous magic.

Claw Hammer, “Three Fifteen”

I guess we’re going to open all the songs today with a lil’ guitar wank. OK by me!

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, “Cowboy Coffee”

The Bosstones’ second album, More Noise and Other Disturbances, is really where the band hit their stride. The ska and punk were really in balance on this album, with plenty of both livening things up.

The Game, “Intro to the Documentary”

Yup, that’s an intro.

Two Inch Astronaut, “At Risk Student”

Last time they came up, I thought to myself: dang, this is a good song. And I’m pleased to say that I picked up another record from them in the interim, including this song. Still good! Put one in the win column for Five Songs!