Hey, I know somebody playing on one of these! (SPOILER ALERT: not the first one.)
It feels really wrong to just have one track from The Wall in here. It further feels like this is the wrong time to discuss Pink Floyd. Maybe I’ll do a Pink Floyd special at some point. Anyway, suffice it to say, The Wall is over the top and ridiculous, and nevertheless I still love every part of its hammy majesty.
[Read More]Sorry about the second song in the playlist. You’ll see when you get there.
From Stepfather, an album that featured some pretty experimental songs, distinguishing itself from its more straightforward predecessors. “You” is built around a nice, conventional funk sample, though.
To the extent Front 242 ever had a “hit”, it was this song, briefly a staple of a certain sort of dance club. And just in case you wanted to hear that industrial dance beat more clearly, they helpfully provided an instrumental remix on the inevitable 12" single of the song, along with six more versions of it. Say what you want about the purveyors of industrial dance, but they got their money’s worth out of any song that got traction.
[Read More]Oh god, this is a bad song. I’m so, so sorry, if anybody is listening to this. This is like something straight out of the cheesiest fever swamps of power metal, but with no ridiculous flaming guitar solo.
Much better! One of the slower songs from Burning Airlines, but still with that little keening guitar line to keep things interesting. And I love the way that they recorded the bass for their albums.
[Read More]Ex-Helmet drummer John Stanier joined with Ian Williams of Don Caballero to form Battles. Given the pedigree, it’s no surprise that the focus was on complex, prog-y songs. Somewhat surprising, given the muscular nature of those two bands and the tough-sounding name, is the fact that Battles actually ends up playing pretty playful stuff. It’s not just wall-to-wall power, but ends up instead focusing on finesse.
[Read More]Some strong hip hop, some great reggae, an instrumental trifle, and some classic rock. It’s Five Songs!
Part of a blossoming reaction to the preeminent aesthetic of late 80s hip hop, A Tribe Called Quest quickly became the greatest of the acts rejecting the posturing of so many of their peers. From their very first album, People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (which this song comes from), they were already executing a fully realized artistic vision, one perfected in their next album, The Low End Theory. The focus on addressing topics that other groups weren’t talking about along with a sonic palette that included far more jazz than was the norm helped them stand out from just about anybody else, excepting maybe De La Soul (who were frequent collaborators). Simply put, A Tribe Called Quest is one of the giants of hip-hop, and their first three albums are all essential listening.
[Read More]I get itchy when we go too long without a Stax track. This is one of Eddie Floyd’s biggest hits, later covered by Al Green on his magnificent Let’s Stay Together.
There have been multiple bands called 400 Blows (all named after the Truffaut film, one presumes), but this is the noise rock one from California. This song comes from Black Rainbow, and is full of this kind of start/stop fun and yelling. Good times!
[Read More]Happy Halloween! This is coming to you late, because I forgot to put it together before now. Well, better late than never.
You know, up until this track came up, I had kind of forgotten that A Moon Shaped Pool existed. I pre-ordered it, and then forgot to listen to it when it arrived. Well, no time like the present! Dig those strings!
(NB: I pulled up a live version, because the studio version seems to be missing.)
[Read More]Here at Five Songs, we never stop working for you, the tiny handful of people who put up with this, day in and day out. So, today, we’re going the extra 20% with six songs! Such generosity!
If you look at that band name and say to yourself “that sounds like a fourth-tier third-wave band”, congratulations! You’ve probably consumed too much Five Songs!
[Read More]Without noticing, I passed six moths of doing this stuff. Nice. Here’s today’s tunes.
Another track from Unsteady’s fantastic Double or Nothing, this sarcastic song contains the genius line “I’m a blessed martyr to the church inside my head”, which I think about a lot. Anyway, the ratio of “how much I like this album” to “how much the rest of the world has heard of this album” is just about as high as it gets on this record.
[Read More]Seattle band that plays a combination of 60’s pop, surf, and a bit of garage rock. Everything is super reverbed out, is what I’m saying. It’s a lot of fun! I like the second album, Weirdo Shrine, the best of the two studio records.
Another local band! Seaweed were out of Tacoma, WA, and were active on Sub Pop during the grunge explosion. Despite that, they were always more of a punk band than a grunge band, and consequently kind of got lost in the shuffle. The middle couple albums, Weak and Four, were excellent, and are worth digging up to try out.
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