Five Songs, 10/22/2018

A repeat today, so you all know what that means. SIX SONGS BABY

De La Soul, “Pain (Radio Edit)”

Feels like we’ve had this song on here before. (looks) Yeah, we have. I have to fix all the tagging/index stuff around here.

Neutral Milk Hotel, “You’ve Passed”

The focus for Neutral Milk Hotel is on In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, but On Avery Island is very good as well. It’s maybe a little more predictable, a little more just pure indie pop, but Jeff Magnum knows what he’s doing here.

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Five Songs, 10/21/2018

Today!

Ashanti Afrika Jah, “Onyame”

One of the tremendous things about today’s music scene is that we have so many quality reissue labels that are looking through the past and finding great stuff to bring back to light. This comes from the Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump compilation which is just a delight to listen to all the way through.

De La Soul, “Church”

De La Soul seemed pretty done after the second Art Official Intelligence record came out. However, The Grind Date turned out to be an excellent record, proving they still had plenty left in the tank. First Serve was also good (although, technically, it was only two-thirds of De La Soul), so they ended up having a bit of a late career renaissance.

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Five Songs, 10/20/2018

One of the things I’m doing with my restart of this project is really kind of taking the schedule as it comes. If I don’t feel like doing an entry some day, I’m not going to sweat it. Hopefully, that will make sure that I keep going for plenty of time. So, let’s see what we’ve got today!

NoFX, “The Cause”

I wonder if my kids will listen to this kind of punk when they get older. I wonder if any kids do? It is absolutely true that I haven’t got a clue what most kids listen to, so all I really know is that I still see kids wander around in Dead Kennedys gear and the like. So maybe?

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Five Songs, 10/15/2018

Folks, they can’t all be winners.

Scissorfight, “Victory Over Horseshit”

Can we just admire the naming going on here? Scissorfight? “Victory Over Horseshit”? That’s good stuff. I mean, the album isn’t that great or anything, but whatever.

DJ Food, “Dark Blood (Mlo Nu Blud 2 Mix)”

Yeah, there’s no way this is going to be on YouTube, is it?

(looks)

Hooray! I’m very lazy, so that’s great news.

OK, Plexasaurus Rex, let’s get some meat on the bone here, not much to talk about so far.

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Five Songs, 10/14/2018

I was at Shut Up & Sit Down Expo over the weekend, and it was fun, although I think that that was mostly because it was a getaway weekend for Megan and I. But, it was a good pretext to get out of town! Also, somebody asked me for my autograph. Super cool!

Today’s tunes.

Ministry, “I Prefer”

We’ve now gone back in Ministry’s catalog far enough to reach their first good album. The flaccid synth-pop of With Sympathy and stilted semi-aggro synths of Twitch had finally metastasized into the aggressive Land of Rape and Honey. This, arguably, is the most industrial of their albums, with less of the metallic riffing of their later stuff but all of the mechanical pounding you might want. I haven’t listend to this in ages, I should give it a spin.

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Five Songs, 10/11/2018

New verison of Ghost! So far, I don’t like it. Whatever. Still basically works. I have music for you!

Lungfish, “Reveal Me”

I have a very distinct memory of listening to this album while wandering around Wean Hall at my college, and paying a lot of attention to it, and deciding that I just didn’t really like it very much. I’m not sure what set me off about it, but I very much decided that Lungfish weren’t for me. This is from their debut album, and apparently they lasted for a long time, and I stuck to my guns. I haven’t heard anything else from them. Maybe they were good! I don’t know!

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Five Songs, 10/10/2018

Hey, y’all! I’m going to be in Vancouver this weekend for SHUX! If you happen to be going, say hi!

Today’s music!

Boogie Down Productions, “Remix For P Is Free”

Criminal Minded is at the root of so much of New York rap. It’s really one of the foundational documents of the East Coast scene. There are so many echoes of this album in so many other records that it’s almost hard to even pick them out. At this point, the original sounds like a cliche, which is unfair, as this record is where all that stuff comes from.

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Five Songs, 10/9/2018

Fantastic one today!

J-Zone, “Zone For President”

More old shit from J-Zone! I mentioned his persona last time, but here you can really hear the cheapass side of things. Also, dig that circus beat! And the shots at internet losers. All good stuff!

Pond, “Forget”

Pond’s third and final record, Rock Collection, came out on a major label, which probably did it no favors. While Sub Pop would know what to do with a band like this, when Pond didn’t hit it big quickly with this record, Sony basically just forgot that it existed. It’s a shame, because it’s a an excellent album full of rock gems like this, all of them at least a little off-kilter. There’s also some really touching songs on here as well. Overall, a lost gem.

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Five Songs, 10/6/2018

Pretty good one today!

Cop Shoot Cop, “All the Clocks are Broken”

One of the things that set Cop Shoot Cop apart from the other acts they were usually lumped with, often other industrial bands, was that Tod Ashley was never afraid to deploy some genuine emotion in his songs. It wasn’t all just pummelling, fury, noise, and aggression. Songs like this would presage the work that Ashley would later turn in with Firewater.

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Five Songs, 10/5/2018

Barely got this done today.

Sharon Jones, “Natural Born Lover”

Look, I don’t think I’m a great writer, or even a good one, when it comes to music. Hell, I probably don’t really rise to “adequate”. My failing is that a lot of these entries are pretty shallow. I’m also unable to really evoke what it’s like to listen to these folks. Also, my comparisons are not great. And…

…hang on, let’s try this again. I’m saying that these mostly suck, but whatever, listen to this fucking song. Goddammit, this is some great shit.

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