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Today!

Young Fresh Fellows, “Whatever You Are”

Scott McCaughey managed to play a show a couple of weeks ago, which is just a delightful piece of news. I hope he has many more in him, and I hope I get to see one! In the meantime, enjoy this vintage song from him, off the entertaining and off-kilter It’s Low Beat Time.

Beulah, “Your Mother Loves You Son”

Beulah is a band that always managed to sound like other bands, and a pretty wide variety of other bands to boot. Honestly, this song has more than a little Young Fresh Fellows in it. I’m OK with that!

Less talk, more…rock? today.

Negativland, “Seat Bee Sate”

This is another track from an Over The Edge compilation, this time Volume 8: Sex Dirt. Still nonsense, of course.

Weezer, “Butterfly”

Pinkerton really is their best album, y’all. I still don’t know why I have four of their albums.

Broken Social Scene, “Lover’s Spit”

Another good song from Broken Social Scene. I guess I have to pay more attention to them, huh? We’re all learning around here! I’m learning I like bands I already own music to, and you’re all learning that Five Songs is run by a dumbass!

Meanwhile, happy birthday to me! I’m going to see what shuffle got me.

Steady Earnest, “Rumors”

From Take It! Take It! TAKE IT!, this is a great horn line in this song. I’m OK with my present so far, shuffle!

KC Bowman, “Matterhorn”

We’ve had a couple of Lawsuit songs recently, and now KC Bowman will make more sense. You can really hear the similarity in the songs (Bowman was one of the songwriters of Lawsuit). I do miss the rest of the band, but I’m happy that Bowman made another album.

It’s our birthday! I posted the first Five Songs one year ago! In that time, assuming I’ve gotten my tagging right, I’ve posted 313 of these things, meaning you all have gotten a minimum of 1,565 different songs (plus a few bonuses along the way). NOT BAD. I’m still thinking about what to do for the second year of Five Songs. I might retire this thing, because it is a fair bit of work for something that is usually looked at by a number of people I can count on one hand. But, at the same time, it’s still fun, usually.

Some titans today.

Crazy Baldhead, “Funky Drummer”

A repeat! No regrets! Bring on the juice!

Rob Swift, “Hip Hop On Wax”

A member of the X-Ecutioners, Rob Swift is a turntablist from New York who has had a long solo career as well. Always rooted in the traditions of hip-hop, his records feature his pyrotechnic scratching, which is worth seeking out just on its own. The overall quality of his albums often tends to be driven by the quality of the guests he’s working with, with this being an example of one of his better tracks. If you like the sound of this, try out one of his early albums (this is from Sound Event).

I don’t have a lot to say today.

Man Or Astro-Man?, “Lo Batt”

Man Or Astro-Man? made (mostly) instrumental rock, in sort of a surf rock vein, but with this kind of retro-future 50’s thing going on. Their records were pretty similar and uniformly good, so you can just start with one at random and it’ll work out fine. This is from Made From Technetium, for the record.

The Drapels, “Wondering (When My Love Is Coming Home)”

I think the bit where soul artists would name a song something short and pithy and then whack on some big ol’ parenthetical to the name is adorable. More bands should do that.

Some good stuff today.

Pond, “Wheel”

My favorite bands to highlight here are those that haven been largely forgotten, maybe because they were on the periphery of their scenes, and never really left the kind of critical mark that makes future listeners discover them among the thousands of bands of the past. Portland’s Pond is a great example of that. Pond began making records for Sub Pop during the height of grunge, with their first album coming out in 1993. It was a great time to get discovered, yes, but it was also a hard time to stand out among all the bands chasing fame. Like Flop, Pond just got lost in the suffle, and they deserved better. Their first, self-titled album was, yes, pretty grungy, but it was also tuneful in ways that hinted something greater to come. And their second album, The Practice of Joy Before Death, fulfilled that promise. Fantastic songs, great, jagged guitars, just an amazing record. One of my very favorites to come out of the entire grunge scene. They recorded one more fantastic record, Rock Collection, for a major label before breaking up. All three albums are worth your time.

Here’s today.

Mudhoney, “Beneath The Valley Of The Underdog”

A little bit of a slow burn, psychedelic number from Mudhoney here. This comes from Tomorrow Hit Today as well as appearing on the compilation March To Fuzz, which I believe I’ve sung the praises of before. I’m not going to check, as professionalism isn’t something we really go in for here at Five Songs. Which, you know, explains our love for Mudhoney.

Today!

Jurassic 5, “Sum Of Us”

I wish I could bottle the first verse of this song, just so I could always have it handy when I need it. Just, absolutely nailed.

Isaac Hayes & David Porter, “Ain’t That Loving You (For More Reasons Than One)”

Here we have Isaac Hayes really sounding a lot like what I think people think of when they think “Isaac Hayes”. Well, OK, most people probably think of “Theme From Shaft”. But beyond that, the song in their head probably sounds like this. This is from pretty late in the Stax run, from the early 70s.

Another good one today!

Belle & Sebastian, “I Fought In A War”

Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant was Belle & Sebastian’s first real misstep as a band. Stuart Murdoch ceded a lot of songwriting control to the rest of the band, and the results were not super inspiring. There are some highlights on the record, and I still like it, but there are also too many so-so songs on the album. This song, the opener, is one of the highlights though.