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Back to the usual thing around here, with our usual random playlist.

Johnny Cash, “Darlin’ Companion”

I engaged in my self-flagellation about my Johnny Cash collection last time, so I’ll spare you all. This is from Live at San Quentin, and is a lovely duet with June Carter Cash.

Discordance Axis, “The Inalienable Dreamless (Complete)”

I have a friend who says The Inalienable Dreamless is one of his favorite albums (maybe his favorite), so I ended up giving the band a try. It’s very extreme and virtuosic grindcore, which means it’s incredibly fast and the changes come at whiplash speed. Just to make things more confusing, this song is NOT from that album, it’s from Our Last Day, which was a compilation of odds and ends of related projects. And just to make things even MORE confusing, this is a cover of the entire The Inaliable Dreamless album by Merzbow. So, you know, buckle in for sixteen minutes of total noise freakout! I, um, understand if people skip this.

Merry Christmas! Five Songs got you a playlist. Today, I searched for “holiday” in my collection, and then randomized those songs. And thank you all for reading and listening this year! There’s a few dozen of you checking in here, on and off, and I appreciate that there are even that many of you willing to put up with a self-indulgent project like this. Please stick around with The Worst Music Blog on the Web, we’ve got more planned for next year!

Christmas Eve! This is all pre-recorded, so I hope you all are enjoying your holidays! Here’s your decidedly non-Christmas playlist for today!

The Minus 5, “The Town That Lost Its Groove Supply”

Another song from Down With Wilco, a thoroughly charming album that I heartily recommend everybody pick up right now. Why right now? Scott McCaughey, one of my personal musical heroes and somebody I’ve been listening to for the last 27 years, suffered a stroke a few weeks ago. Given how much trying to recover from something like that costs, he’ll need every cent he can get. So, buy a great album, and help a great musician. If you’d like to contribute directly, there’s also a GoFundMe.

Here is today’s music. Some real ugliness, in the cover art of the first album and the lyrics of the last one.

Unsane, “Organ Donor”

I could have sworn we had hit Unsane before, but the theoretically infallible Five Songs Index says otherwise, so here we are. Unsane were a noise rock trio from New York, part of the same general underground as bands like Helmet, Cop Shoot Cop, and others. I was huge into that entire scene, and really liked Unsane a lot. That, however, wasn’t really what they were known for with most people. No, what they were known for was the cover art on their debut album, depicting a decapitated person on subway tracks. They would continue with the violent album covers, covers which set the mood for the dark music within. And that dark tone affected the band as well, with their original drummer dying of a heroin overdose.

Well, I hope people find the brief essay down below interesting. Probably not. You can listen to something while you read, though.

Duke Ellington, “Braggin’ In Brass”

A monolith appears on primitive Earth. Agitated apes cluster around it, screeching, trying to ascertain its meaning, its message. Curiosity overcoming their fear, they eventually touch the monolith as the music swells. The music is “Yakety Sax”. Flickering neon words appear on the monolith: “JOSH IS NOT QUALIFIED TO TALK ABOUT JAZZ”.

I’m not entirely sold on this new version of Ghost Blog that I’ve installed. I feel like the editor is worse. Oh well. Music here!

Doreen’s Jazz New Orleans, “12th Street Rag”

My oldest daughter started learning the clarinet in school last year, so I wanted to get some music in the house to give her some examples of the possibilities with the instrument. Doreen’s Jazz New Orleans was suggested as a possibility, so I picked up this album.

Hooray, music!

VHOL, “The Tomb”

The new band of guitar genius John Cobbett (Hammers of Misfortune and Ludicra, who we haven’t hit yet), and featuring various other veterans of the underground metal scene, Vhol came storming out of the gates with their self-titled release in 2013, which might have been my favorite record that year (except whatever I’m forgetting about). Their follow-up, Deeper than Sky, came out a couple years later and didn’t skip a beat. Usually sounding like something close to thrash, but with drums that sound a lot like hardcore punk, there’s something really elemental about this music that just makes me want to break stuff. Anyway, both records are amazing, and it just now occurred to me that we’re about due for a new one.

Today’s music.

The Flaming Lips, “Stand in Line”

Prior to turning into the atmospheric, melancholy, fuzzed-out band they are today, the Flaming Lips were an experimental, drugged-out psych band that really didn’t know where things were going, but didn’t particularly care. They released a series of albums that you can charitably describe as “uneven” but most would probably categorize as “unlistenable”. They started going in the right direction with 1990’s In A Priest Driven Ambulance, which gives us today’s song. Somehow, Warner Brothers signed them to a major label based on this record. Anyway, I actually like it better than the immediately following album, and this albums is where to stop if you’re going backwards through the Lips’ discography.

Six songs today! Repeats are your best value here at Five Songs Incorporated!

Nitzer Ebb, “Higher (Barry Adamson Mix)”

This is from an obscure EP called As Is, a little four song thing with a grab bag of tracks on it. It was put out to precede Ebbhead, which was to be their major label debut, and was supposed to get people hyped up. It’s not a bad little EP, you know, if you’re into Nitzer Ebb.

Today starts out as slow as it gets, but don’t worry, that part doesn’t last long.

TV On The Radio, “Black”

Yes, it’s another 15 seconds of silence. TV On The Radio is, thus far, by far the clubhouse leader in “Most Annoying Contributions to Five Songs”.

(NB: I searched for “fifteen seconds of silence” and put that in the playlist instead of, you know, TV On The Radio’s fifteen seconds of silence. Think of it as a cover version.)