Lucious Jackson, “Strongman”

When the Beastie Boys took the leap to playing their own instruments with Check Your Head, they also started expanding the reach of their label, Grand Royal. Lucious Jackson was one of the artists that they signed, putting out their first record, Natural Ingredients. It made a fair bit of sense, as the sensibilities of Lucious Jackson fit in well with the more funk/soul elements of the reinvented Beasties sound. Despite critical acclaim, the record never really seemed to catch on, but it still sounds pretty good.

Logh, “The Smoke Will Lead You Home”

Absolutely no recollection of buying this record! Let’s listen together!

…This sounds like something I would have been really into circa 1994.

Cobalt, “Pregnant Insect”

OK, you ready for some shit? Cobalt is a duo! Listen to this! Goddamn!

Sleep, “Nain’s Baptism”

Hell yeah, metal today! Sleep’s Holy Mountain is one of the absolute untouchable classics of doom/stoner metal, a record that inspired countless imitators, proving that there was still plenty of creativity in the old Black Sabbath formula. It still sounds great today in the same way that peak Sabbath records sound great, because it’s just so elemental.

White Stripes, “We’re Going To Be Friends”

Every now and again, a record breaks through into mainstream attention that surprises me. I would not have bet on the ascetic blues rock revivalists the White Stripes being anybody who would get mainstream attention, but somehow they broke through. White Blood Cells still doesn’t sound like a record that should have gotten huge, as it’s still relatively uncompromising in the vision they’re pursuing.

Big Black, “I Can Be Killed”

From the first Big Black release, Lungs (later collected on The Hammer Party), this was all done entirely by Steve Albini. After this EP, Albini was able to put together an actual band, and the Big Black sound would come together. Despite that, you can still hear Albini’s approach developing on these songs, which read almost New Wave at times.

The Supremes, “A Breathtaking Guy”

Hell yeah!

Prince, “All The Critics Love U In New York”

Somehow, 23 years before their first record, Prince laid a pretty savage burn on LCD Soundsystem.

Jawbox, “Meathook”

Jawbox put together a comp, My Scrapbook Of Fatal Accidents, which gathered together most of their non-album releases in one place. There’s some solid stuff on it, and I recommend it for Jawbox fans. What we have here is one of the real oddities, a cover of the Cure’s “Meathook”, which serves best as a companion piece to their cover of Tori Amos’s “Cornflake Girl”.

Autoclave, “Bulls Eye”

Before Mary Timony formed the brilliant Helium (and Wild Flag and Ex Hex!), she was in Autoclave, who put out a couple of EPs for Dischord Records which were later collected on a single comp. It’s an interesting piece of history, and for Timony fans, I do think it’s worth picking up, but it’s not on the same level as her later work. It IS extremely early 90s Dischord, though.

Clinic, “Voodoo Wop”

Imagine having the confidence to open an album this way. A distant, chilly vibe, acutal ocean noises, a complete change a minute in in both mood and sound, no vocals until the last five seconds. Just bonkers. It was a true declaration of intent, though, as the whole album basically fulfilled the promise of this opening track.

Cursive, “Driftwood: A Fairy Tale”

One of the fun things about The Ugly Organ, if “fun” is the right word, is that they made great use of the cello in order to really fill out the sounds on the record. Tim Kasher’s songs are very good, as always, and the album is one of my favorites of theirs.

New year, same old flaky schedule! My apologies, we here at Five Songs were on the road intending on keeping the rock going, even lugging our laptop all over the place. But, alas, Plexasaurus Rex back home decided to die, and needed a reboot, and nobody was around to push the button. So, a bit of a break. We’re back! We’re ready to rumble! HIT IT, PLEXASAURUS REX!

Green Day, “Minority”

I was playing Rock Band with the kids the other day, and a couple of Green Day tracks popped up. The kids declared that all Green Day songs sounded the same, and I’ll be honest, I thought I had a couple more years before they started roasting my taste in music. Disheartening! I grounded them for a decade.

The Presidents of the United States of America, “We Are Not Going To Make It”

The Presidents were viewed as a novelty act, which is kind of inescapable when your hits are things like “Lump” and “Peaches”. And, yeah, there’s a lot of breezy nonesense in Ballew’s lyrics. But there’s some genuinely charming stuff in there, some real wit, and of course, some self-deprecation like in this tune. But, more importantly, the songs themselves were crisp, memorable, and catchy, and that means that their rock/pop/punk melange is just plain fun.

They Might Be Giants, “Let Me Tell You About My Operation”

I always enjoy the manic stuff when they really roll it out. A nice performance from Marty Beller on the drums here.

DJ Muggs & Roc Marciano, “White Dirt”

DJ Muggs was always the best part of Cypress Hill, and it’s nice to hear him working with Roc Marciano on Kaos, which is a solid pairing. Marciano does good work, and Muggs rolls out a bunch of his signature claustrophobic sounds on the album.