Botanist, “Nourishing the Fetus (Mandragora IV)”

This is from the third Botanist album, helpfully labeled IV: Mandragora. There’s a I and a III, I just don’t know what happened to II. Down the memory hole, I guess! The next album is a VI. Who knows?

King Crimson, “I Talk To The Wind”

I didn’t really pay much attention to King Crimson for a long time, mostly because the dude I knew in college who was into King Crimson was way, way too into them. So, I just kind of ignored them, just sort of picking up little bits about them. I think I was surprised by how quiet a bunch of In The Court of the Crimson King was when I finally heard it. It really wasn’t at all what I was picturing. It turns out I was really kind of picturing Discipline, but I didn’t realize it yet.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, “Got A Thing On My Mind”

More from Miss Sharon Jones! This is the first proper song on the first Sharon Jones album, and my goodness, what a way to announce themselves. This is one of the albums that really got Daptone rolling, and it’s a great record.

The Nation of Ulysses, “Shakedown”

A thing that is pretty incredible about the Nation of Ulysses is that Ian Svenonius was able to keep up this kind of shredding vocals for any period of time. Impressive stuff!

Fuckin’ Christmas! YEAH! Gonna find some Christmas tunes for us today! Just going to pick some recent Christmas albums and take a random track from them. Ooh, bonus: PUP playing a Christmas adaptation of “Kids” with some puppets dancing around!

Calexico, “Seasonal Shift”

The title track from Calexico’s just released Christmas album, Calexico is a natural for making a lovely Christmas album. Everything this band does is beautiful, so it’s going to fit totally in with the season. I heartily endorse this record!

Poster Children, “Clock Street”

Unlike a lot of rock bands putting out records in the early 90s, the Poster Children were not signed in the wake of Nevermind. They found their way onto Sire for their 1990 album Daisychain Reaction, putting them ahead of that particular game. Nevertheless, Nirvana’s success put them in a good spot for their followup album, Tool of the Man. It’s more Pixies than Nirvana, with a bit too much brightness to really break through in that scene. But, listening 17 years on, this stuff sounds fresher than a lot of grunge does these days.

Panopticon, “Blåtimen”

Panopticon, the band that is actually just Austin Lunn, gained attention with Kentucky, where Lunn merged his love of Appalachian folk music with his love of black metal and produced an amalagam of the two, creating one of the most distinctive and interesting black metal albums ever. A couple albums down the road from his breakthrough, and he was still playing both of his loves. The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness is a double album, and unlike Kentucky, it’s more two halves rather than a melding of the two styles. There’s a midpoint in the double album where it switches from the black metal to the folk. Lunn is an expert at both, so as long as you’re OK with both styles, it’s a great record. This, uh, is from the black metal half.

The Replacements, “Waitress In The Sky”

This is an inner-circle member of the “Songs That Randomly Pop In Josh’s Head” club. Which isn’t the catchiest name, I know. I’ll bring it up at the next meeting.

The Replacements, “I Will Dare”

Well, that’s a first. I ain’t mad!

I’ve said it before, but the Replacements have made the best album named Let It Be.

Negativland, “The Perfect Cut (Canned Music)”

In the wake of getting some minor success, Negativland planned to tour to support Escape From Noise. It quickly became apparent that the tour was going to be a financial disaster, so the band decided to cancel it. Being who they are, they made up a story about why they were canceling it, and fed nonsense to the media that it was a consequence of legal trouble as a result of a kid murdering his parents after listening to “Christianity Is Stupid”. This was at a time when the media was ready to believe all kinds of nonsense about music and games, with satanic panic everywhere, so they got a local news station in California to bite.

Eddie Holland, “Take A Chance On Me”

Alas, no, this isn’t a predecessor of the ABBA song, but now I want to hear Motown style covers of ABBA songs.

The Pietasters, “Without You”

Seems like we’ve had a lot more of the Pietasters live than we have from their studio work, which is kind of a shame. A rational person might ask, well, why don’t I just remove the live record from the collection? To which I say to you, Rational Person, why the hell are you even paying attention to this dumb blog? Shouldn’t you be doing some imaginary figment business or something?

Tuxedo, “So Good”

It is so good, Tuxedo, you’re right.

Swarvy, “Lesson With Julian”

Kiiiinda regretting not writing more for that first track.

Has-Lo, “Utero”

Well, on track here for the shortest Five Songs entry ever, at least by word count. Maybe by running time also, I don’t know. I’d have to actually do some research to figure that out, and that is absolutely not going to happen.

Cynic, “Celestial Voyage”

Cynic’s 1993 album Focus is one of the foundational documents of progressive metal, as they took death metal and mashed it up with prog and jazz, resulting in an album that was very, very far out there for the time. The constant showy playing can get kind of exhausting, honestly, but it’s hard not to at least respect what they’re up to here. They actually put just this album out, which would have been an impressive one-record legacy…before ruining that by reforming 15 years later. I have not listened to any post-reunion records, though.

Mephiskapheles, “Satanic Debris”

As a statement of purpose for a band, it doesn’t get a whole lot stronger than this one. From the opening backwards masked vocals, to the dark lyrics, the subtle distortion of the guitar lending some additional menace, to the hallmark solo trading, you just have a perfect encapsulation of the (wonderful) Mephiskapheles aesthetic. The odds that a band named Mephiskapheles would turn in one of the finest albums of the third wave seems slim, but God Bless Satan is legitimately a treasure.

Godflesh, “Pure”

Godflesh were pioneers in heavy music, bringing together the guitars of extreme metal with the rhythms of industrial, inspiring bands on both sides of the fence. Streetcleaner is considered a classic, and after an interim EP, they returned with Pure, after some changes in personnel. The drum machine and sampling was even more forward than in the previous album, and the results aren’t really as strong. It’s something of a transitional record, where you can see the seams between the industrial and metal, rather than merging together as a whole.