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Music!

Bob Marley, “Exodus”

From the album of the same name, Exodus was recorded in London after Marley lived there for a couple years after surviving a murder attempt. It’s a strong album, featuring some of his most famous songs, and should be on the list for anybody interested in reggae.

Chevelle, “Prove To You”

This is a pretty convincing Helmet impression.

Ice Cube, “Until We Rich”

This is from War & Peace, Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc), a very late career album, about which the less said, the better. It’s amazing how much less dangerous Cube sounds here than in his prime.

Happy October! It’s a little ska-ish in here today. Sorry about that.

Magic Hour, “Sally Free and Easy”

Magic Hour is Wayne Rogers (Crystalized Movements) and another guitarist along with the rhythm section from Galaxie 500. They lasted a couple of albums, sounding exactly like the combination of their two progenitor bands - alternately dreamy and psychedelic. I was mostly here for the psychedelic guitar, personally.

The Specials, “A Message To You Rudy”

This track kicks off the Specials’ self-titled debut album, which just to reiterate from last time, is probably the best ska album ever made.

Back and forth between cerebral stuff and straightforward things. It’s the Five Songs way!

The Jam, “Boy About Town”

From Sound Affects, this is just a great song. I could listen to this stuff all day long.

Negativland, “I Believe It’s L”

Negativland’s 1997 album Dispepsi was all about advertising, with a focus on the “cola wars” between Coke and Pepsi. Constructed out of bits of found sound and with a fair number of things that might actually pass for songs, it’s one of the most accessible Negativland albums, along with Escape From Noise and Free. It’s still not normal, mind you, but I’m grading on a curve here. I doubt that this record would resonate with anybody who didn’t grow up surrounded by these ads.

Shuffle is trying to make me look dumb today. It probably succeeded.

Channels, “Mercury”

Channels is basically impossible to search YouTube for. Well, it was only a few days ago we first encountered them, so hopefully you all remember them well. This song is about as ballad-y as J. Robbins gets.

New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble, “Naima”

A side project of a bunch of folks in the New York third-wave ska scene, this is basically what it sounds like: a bunch of ska artists getting together to play a bunch of jazz standards. It’s a pretty enjoyable listen. This, of course, is the John Coltrane song. I’d say more, but, well, you know the score.

I don’t have a lot to say about today’s songs. Sorry about that.

NoFX, “Total Bummer”

Yup, that’s a NoFX song. Damn, I have a lot of NoFX albums. I really did enjoy them a lot at one time.

Mr. Lif, “World Renown”

Yeah, that’s more like it. Always happy to hear Del the Funky Homosapien show up on something. This is from Lif’s comeback album, Don’t Look Down, a welcome record to show up. I’ll always have room for a guy rhyming “Charybdis”.

One of my favorite bands showing up here for the first time today.

Calexico, “Coyoacán”

I’m surprised we haven’t heard from Calexico before now. Calexico is a long-running band out of Arizona that makes an unmistakable mix of spaghetti western soundtracks, surf, jazz, mariachi, and some pop. There’s nobody else that really sounds like them, and they’ve kept up the tremendous quality now for about twenty years. This song comes from their latest, Edge of the Sun, and gives you at least a good idea of one type of song you’ll find on their albums.

Here’s today’s music.

Channels, “$99.99”

We’ve encountered J. Robbins before, with Jawbox and Office of Future Plans. Channels is yet another of his post-Jawbox projects, and occupies a very similar space. What all of his bands, from Jawbox on, share is a similar focus on the same fundamentals: tightly wound songs, melodic choruses, fantastic drumming, and a certain essential artiness. Personally, I love it, and a new album from him is always a treat.

Soul, a couple rap songs, some metal, and an electronic artist cutting up Fugazi. What could be better?

The Olympians, “Pluto’s Lament”

I don’t think we’ve talked that much about Daptone Records around here. Daptone is a retro soul label out of Brooklyn, releasing records by Sharon Jones, The Budos Band, Charles Bradley, and many others. While most of the artists on the label are very retro in sound, it usually still sounds pretty fresh in no small part because a lot of these types of music kind of disappeared from the music scene for a while.

Tons of new releases that I picked up this week!

• Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Luciferian Towers
• METZ, Strange Peace
• The Du-Rites, Greasy Listening
• Wolves in the Throne Room, Thrice Woven
• Moses Sumney, Aromanticism

I think that’s it? Sometimes I get confused about what releases when, because I pre-order things when I hear about them. I haven’t had a chance to listen to them all yet, but that Du-Rites record is tight, and the Moses Sumney record is fantastic. Meanwhile, it’s all rock of various stripes today.

Make! The most! Of my! Toe toast! Hey, while we’re giggling over this first Descendents track, a Five Songs correspondent pointed out the existence of this masterpiece, which is really breathtaking.

Descendents, “Enjoy”

A couple albums into the Descendents’ snotty punk career, the casual observer might have wondered if they were ever ACTUALLY going to grow up, despite an album title declaring otherwise. With the opening track of Enjoy, the band gave a definitive answer. An ode to bodily smells of all types, “Enjoy” was defiantly sophomoric in a way that exceeded even the low maturity standards of their first few releases. I will say this, the little descending baseline is very memorable.