I’m delighted by this set today.
As before, this is truly a strange artifact in the ol’ collection. Once again, it’s a pretty pleasant listen, and kind of makes me wish that there was more of this around.
It’s obscure day here at Five Songs! Well, as I mentioned last time, if Russell Simins is involved, I’m there. I mean, come on, listen to this shit! Groovy as hell.
[Read More]WRCT, the campus radio station at Carnegie Mellon, used to get tons of records from just about every label. Primarily, that was because we actually would play stuff from smaller labels, having largely rejected the idea of “college rock” as well as “coherence” and “professionalism”. From that wave of incoming stuff, somebody on the staff would listen to everything and write a little note on an index card to stick to it. You’d suggest which songs might make sense to play on the air, which songs you should avoid unless you were in the “safe harbor” (in other words, which ones had swearing), if a record was hopeless, whatever. If you really liked a record, you’d put it in the booth with the other notable new releases.
[Read More]Every now and again, I catch myself thinking, “geez, this playlist really sounds like something I’d love!” And then I think, come ON brain, what are you thinking? But my brain has already moved on. Well, anyway, today’s playlist is pretty indie rock-y. And Haggard-y, I suppose.
I’ve always really liked the Wedding Present’s slower numbers. The contrast with the usual hyperactive pop really centers David Gedge’s lonely, weary lyrics. And sometimes you want that extra bummer, you know? This comes from Saturnalia, the last album from their first incarnation, before Gedge recorded with Colorama for a while. It’s an excellent album, as is everything that that version of the band put out.
[Read More]Today is not the most coherent set.
A repeat! Six songs today, people!
This comes from Obscura, a landmark album in death metal where Gorguts explored how dissonant and downright strange they could make a metal album. This kind of unhinged musical exploration is where I’ve always found my favorites in death metal, and this kind of spastic noise really has as much in common with the avant garde as it does with traditional metal. This kind of thing can take a bit to absorb, as it’s disorienting to listen to at first, but I find it all really interesting.
[Read More]Now we’re talkin’. After a couple songs from his followup, we have a cut from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, which is on the short list for the finest Wu-related albums released. Really, what you’ve got here is basically just a great Wu-Tang track, as you’ve got several of the Wu MCs on here. Most of this album has Ghostface Killah on it, which is one of the things that makes it so strong. Really, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
[Read More]Some titans of the rock underground today! I really like this set a lot. Shame it didn’t go one more song, Einstürzende Neubauten popped up next with “Vanadium-I-Ching”, which would have been a fun addition to the list. Oh well, can’t go changing the rules any time I like!
Here, we’re getting a track from the last pre-breakup Pixies album, Trompe Le Monde. At the time, I was pretty disappointed in Bossanova, for whatever reason, but really liked this one. At this remove, it’s not clear what my beef was with Bossanova and it’s pretty similar to Trompe. While both records are off from the peak of their first records, they’re still both excellent and well worth having.
[Read More]I have a new sweatshirt! I’m sort of really excited for it. Also, I come bearing music.
Fishbone played a mix of funk, punk, and metal, coming out of the same Los Angeles scene that birthed the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And for a while, until the Chili Peppers became one of the biggest bands on the planet, you really couldn’t mention one band without mentioning the other. I was never really that big into either of them, truthfully, although I gave them both a try. Anyway, this comes from Give A Monkey A Brain And He’ll Swear He’s The Center Of The Universe, an album that skews more towards the metal end of Fishbone’s sound (as you can hear).
[Read More]Takes a bit to get going, but we close with a couple outstanding songs.
This song, from Here Come the ABC’s, really doesn’t make any sense without the accompanying video. I mean, to the extent it makes sense. Or that anybody cares.
I think this is some kind of meta-commentary on trend hopping in music? From…a third-wave ska band? OK, Johnny Socko.
[Read More]Happy Birthday, Megan! Today’s just about giving her songs that will make her happy. It’s super difficult to just limit this to five songs, for the record.
From one of the albums that we played the most after we first met, it’s difficult to pick just one song from the record. It’s really best enjoyed as an entire album, but I went with the title track mostly because I love the breakdown in the middle of the song so much. This marks the first appearance of the JSBX in this thing, but I’ll talk more about them during a non-special blog. Also, the version of this song I picked is not great quality, but fuck it, it’s still plenty filthy.
[Read More]Super late night tunes for y’all!
From TMBG’s first album, when they sort of put on different musical styles more like outfits than playing them with any real conviction. The album has some real gems on it, but there are also tracks that come across as just pure goofs. The goofs wouldn’t really go away, but got more sophisticated.
The standard bearer of “nerdcore”, MC Frontalot will give you a good idea of if the idea of people rapping about nerd shit is something you love. I think I own one nerdcore album, this one, which probably tells you what I think.
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