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Today!

Thou, “There There”

This is how Thou’s album Algiers ends, which is a collection of assorted EPs and singles. There’s something so elemental about the way that Thou sounds. Something about the entire sound of the band is downright contemptuous. Lots of bands manage to sound ugly, or grim, or noisy, or just generally awful. Thou somehow manages to sound spiteful, which is a neat trick. Well, I dunno about neat. Anyway, this collection isn’t a bad place to start with Thou. Or Heathen, which is a great metal album name.

Today? Fun!

Iron & Wine, “Lion’s Mane”

I think it can be easy to dismiss all these neo-folk types as posers, as just boring sensitive white guys with guitars. And yeah, but some of them are clearly playing something pretty inspired as well. Sam Beam, doing business as Iron & Wine, is one of those worth paying attention to. His debut album, The Creek Drank The Cradle, is pretty precious, but it’s just filled with really nice songs. It’s just Beam’s voice and guitar most of the time, with just the occasional touches of slide guitar or banjo, as you can hear on this song. And while obviously, we here at Five Songs go pretty far in to pretty grim and noisy stuff, sometimes you just really need a pretty song, and Iron & Wine delivers.

Today’s list.

Pavement, “Krell Vid-User”

I’ve complained about the total lack of quality control on Pavements non-album material. For every “Texas Never Whispers” or “Unseen Power of the Picket Fence”, there were a dozen songs like this one lurking in the wings. But hey, at least we’ve got basically every studio dropping ever put on tape by the band lovingly preserved in deluxe editions! That way you can listen to that junk once and never again!

Today!

Dale Crover, “Hillbilly Math”

Here we find Dale Crover playing one of the most straightforward rock songs that he’s probably ever been involved with. I guess you can see how this might not really be a Melvins song, and I’m not sure it’s really necessary, but whatrever, it’s totally fine.

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, “Such Is Love, Such Is Life”

We’re in 1963 with this song today. Frankly, Smokey is sounding a little Chipmunk-y on this song, making this a little less than the best from him.

Well, it’s not as good as yesterday.

Pitchblende, “Ambient Noise”

Pretty much what it says on the tin. I knew today wasn’t going to be as good as yesterday, but this is not a great beginning.

Mr. Review, “One Way Ticket”

This comes from an album called One Way Ticket To Skaville. Say what you want about Skaville, but it’s very clean. Basically no litter. After all, everybody there is just so willing to pick it up, pick it up, pick it up.

Great one today!

Run The Jewels, “Early”

Run The Jewels 2 is just perfect. El-P’s beats have never sounded better, Killer Mike’s rhymes have never soudned better, the guests are fantastic. It’s just such a great album, one of the highlights of music this decade.

Hepcat, “The Secret”

It’s a repeat! Still, Hepcat is always welcome around here.

Minutemen, “Martin’s Story”

I always feel like categorizing the Minutemen as a hardcore band is such a bad idea. They get lumped in there because they would occasionally take that tempo, and of course they were labelmates with a bunch of hardcore bands. But they’re so much different, so much more open to experimentation. Just listen to this!

Six songs today! I should probably just automatically skip everything with Jay-Z in it.

The Slackers, “Real War”

I don’t listen to Close My Eyes very much. Primarily because the second song on it, “Old Dog”, really kind of upsets em. It’s a good album, though, and I really should listen to it more often. Here, we catch the Slackers going into dub some, which they do every now and again.

Today!

Unsane, “Dispatched”

I mentioned last time Unsane came up that they didn’t evolve that much between albums. And this song (from their second album) is a good example - this could easily have just slotted into the first album without skipping a beat. Finding your lane and staying to it is fine, of course, but it does mean that maybe you’re not going to want to keep up with a band for forever.

Here’s today’s list.

Destroyer, “Mad Foxes”

Your Blues is maybe the most Bowie of Destroyer’s albums, which is really saying something. I feel like I’ve made that comparison before. (looks) Hey, I haven’t! Anyway, this is very Bowie-ish. BOOM FRESH INSIGHT

411, “The Naked Face”

“Samiam or 411” would be a challenging game at times. It’s also a game that, like, four people are qualified to play.

Floor, “West”

Listen to how huge those guitars are, they wound like the inside of an industrial machine. And then they all lay out and let the drummer have some? Bliss! It’s a move that so many bands have pulled, and it’s because it works. If I were in a band, I’d have everybody get out and let the dummer have plenty! In fact, maybe we should just have the drummer! Hell yes just drums.

I think this is the longest Five Songs yet!

Inter Arma, “The Cavern”

Oooh, have we got a treat today! Doom metal band Inter Arma have always played around with doom’s template and exploring where it could go. On today’s track, they check in on what happens if they stretch things out to 45 minutes. That’s right, this is the entirety of the album as one single track. It’s a delight, and I’m just going to let you all lean in to it.