Arsonists, “Session”

My favorite song on As The World Burns, powered by that savage bass line. I’m basically a sucker for any upright bass. And, of course, it’s fun to hear them trading verses back and forth.

Prefuse 73, “Last Night”

One of the less glitchy or fractured tracks on Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives, that also makes it one of my least favorite songs on the record.

Dance Hall Crashers, “Street Sweeper”

An old song from Dance Hall Crashers, this was when their style could best be described as “straightforward” (or “boring”, if you’re not inclined to be nice). As they would go on, they would get more interesting, with songs that were less reliant on paint-by-numbers third-wave ska.

Killer Mike, “R.A.P. Music”

I often refer to Killer Mike’s R.A.P. Music as “Run The Jewels 0”, featuring as it does the core duo from RtJ. The approach that El-P takes on the beats is definitely on the continuum that would develop into RtJ, and of course, Killer Mike is on point. The only real difference between this and a full RtJ album is that El-P stays off the mic. Every fan of RtJ owes it to themselves to get this record.

Crackerbash, “Bad Karma”

I know we’ve had Crackerbash on here before, but by way of reminder, they’re a forgotten punk/power pop band out of Portland who were active for just a little while in the early 90s, producing a very good album and outstanding EP, along with a few singles. Then, right as the music scene in the Pacific Northwest blew up, they disappeared. Like fellow Portland band Pond, their stuff stands out by having more of a melodic sense than some of the more dour bands of that time and place.

It’s Thanksgiving! I wrote this way ahead of time! Happy turkey day! I hope everybody gets stuffed and your families do not fight!

Fugees, “Fu-Gee-La (Sly & Robbie Mix)”

The Score is a masterpiece, one of the great records in rap history, but I do find the remixes of “Fu-Gee-La” at the end of the album largely unnecessary. I’d rather just listen to the original of it instead.

Snoop Dogg, “Imagine”

More or less every Snoop album after Doggystyle has been kind of, uh, shaggy. He often sounds like he’s mailing it in at least a little bit (and sometimes more than a litte), and Tha Blue Carpet Treatment is no exception. That said, it’s still one of the better albums he’s put together. It would probably be even better cut down to half its length, but Snoop is still very charismatic, so it’s a pleasant listen.

The Decemberists, “When The War Came”

There’s a lot to really like on The Crane Wife, especially the epic songs on it, but this song isn’t really one of the highlights. It’s fine, I don’t mind it, but it’s not one of the songs I would seek out.

J Church, “I Can’t Be Nice To You”

Meanwhile, here’s a song that I can easily belt out all the lyrics to without even half thinking about it. Prophylaxis is one of the albums I love the most that nobody has really heard of. Is it available on Spotify? Friends, it is not.

The Mighty Mocambos, “In The Dark”

Funk group out of Hamburg, German, the Mighty Mocambos have excellent taste in guest artists, and consistently delightful percussion. Hell, they have a side line as a steel drum band. This song comes from Showdown, which is an excellent collection of tunes.

Zeal and Ardor, “Waste”

We just had a post-black metal band, and here’s another. As you can hear, Zeal and Ardor certainly make use of plenty of the markers of black metal, but marry it to African American spirituals, to create something new from the genre. This kind of blending is super interesting, and I’d like to see it more often.

Shenandoah Davis, “Seventeen”

Kind of remember the last time Davis came up saying that I didn’t know anything about her. Still don’t! We don’t do any research around here! That would be against the Five Songs ethos, where we put the “ass” in “half-assed”.

Dis, “Whiteness”

Does it get more early 90s than this? The guitar tone, the sung and spoken parts, the vocals buried in the mix, all that shit. I was big into this stuff, and it still sounds great. Beacuse I’m old and fossilized.

Jay Farrar, “Different Eyes”

If you’re wondering what the difference is between a Son Volt record and a Jay Farrar record, the answer is “not much”. This album (Sebastopol) was recorded after the very good Wide Swing Tremelo, and honestly, you could scramble up the track listings between the two and not really think anything was off. That makes this album also very good, just so I’m clear.

Deerhoof, “Son of Sorn”

You can see where Deerhoof earns the name “noise pop” on a song like this. It’s about a third aimless noise, a third pounding rhythm, and a third sweet but fractured pop song. They don’t always explore all three of those in the same song, but this is a compact little package of what Deerhoof is about.

Fugazi, “Intro”

There’s not a ton to say here, other than The Argument is a tremendous swan song for the band, and I really wish that there were more records after it.

The Jam, “That’s Entertainment”

One of the crowning achievements of mod, Sound Affects is chock full of great songs, and this one is one of the sweetest of the bunch. It’s straightforward, but it sounds fantastic, and certainly still sounds totally fresh.

Led Zeppelin, “D’yer Mak’er”

Little known band out of the UK, Zeppelin presaged…uh, sorry, I can’t do this.

Grandaddy, “Jed’s Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)”

I really only have a couple things to say about most bands, and I’m legitimately terrified of just repeating them. Individual bands mostly don’t come up often enough for me to really remember what I’ve said before, and goodness knows I don’t go back and read previous entries before writing something. I’m not going anywhere here with this. I’m mostly just positing that I’m just a bag of random associations doing a stimulus/response over here, and I’m constantly concerned that I’m going to be revealed to be the worthless hack that I am at any moment.