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.
[Read More]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
“Samiam or 411” would be a challenging game at times. It’s also a game that, like, four people are qualified to play.
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.
[Read More]I think this is the longest Five Songs yet!
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.
[Read More]Entertainment!, from 1979, is one of the keystones of post-punk, a wiry, edgy blast that countless followers would attempt to mimic. The sort of vaguely dance-y rhythms, the bursts of guitar, the monotone singing, these would become hallmarks of bands even down to today. As a consequence, it’s an album that still sounds pretty fresh.
Gang of Four would keep coming and going, with hiatuses of various lengths, but I’ve never really listened to anything beyond the first two albums.
[Read More]The name A Tribute To The Ska-talites probably would get you (rightfully!) worried that it would just be a bunch of lame covers of the greatest ska band of all time. But no, instead, this is a bunch of artists from the actual first wave of ska doing Skatalites tunes. Including several, you know, actual Skatalites such as Tommy McCook here. So, what could have been a lame record instead turns out to be a super warm slab of the original stuff.
[Read More]Five Songs took a little break there. Had to recharge our batteries. It’s a grind getting out here and writing nothing of consequence about music nobody has heard or cares about! Well, we’re back!
A programming note: I’m really tired of doing the “previously"s. I think they’re charming, but they’re also a hassle to put together manually. I’m going to use the tagging on this platform instead. It’ll take a while to convert all the old entries, but this will make it easier for me going forward.
[Read More]Welcome to Five Songs, where we have six songs for you!
A repeat! Since there’s not much to say about it exactly, I’ll instead mention that Kid Koala did the score for the video game Floor Kids, which I haven’t tried yet, but will.
Listen to the space on those drums. They sound so live! Awesome.
Leading force behind Norwegian black metal legends Emperor, whose In The Nightside Eclipse is one of the touchstones of the genre, Ihsahn has continued forward as a vital force in metal over the decades since. His solo work has tended more towards the progressive and symphonic end of things rather than the black metal grime of his earlier career, but he’s shown a pretty wide range in general.
[Read More]Composed of folks from various post-rock bands such as Tortoise and Isotope 217, 5ive Style are themselves very post-rock themselves. They have a looser, groovier kind of vibe compared to their parent bands, however. Overall, their two albums are both pretty fun.
From their self-titled record. It’s kind of funny to listen to this stuff now. It’s a little hard to see exactly what I saw in this back in the day. This song is just a by-the-numbers tribute to really old rock. It’s fine?
[Read More]Garage rock revivalists Mono Men, from Bellingham, WA, were dedicated to the proposition that back-to-basics rock was all anybody really needed. They were sufficiently dedicated to the idea that not only did they put out a ton of albums on their own, but they formed Estrus Records to put out records by like-minded bands (like The Mortals). In one of the bummers of indie rock, the building where they kept the masters for all of the Estrus records releases burned down, although I suppose that matters less in the digital age than it might have in previous eras.
[Read More]Took a little break there. No worries, we’re back in business!
I mentioned last time that Wiccans kind of sound like an old Amphetamine Reptile act, and they really do. This kind of sounds like maybe old Cows, or perhaps something like the Cosmic Psychos.
Well, uh, that’s a thing, huh?
The closer to VI: Flora, this is the coda to an excellent album, but this song doesn’t have a lot to say.
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