Hey! There’s an index to these things, meticulously maintained. I’m going to periodically mention it here, because these intros are dumb and why am I still typing I could just say here’s the music and you’d all be happier if any of you existed that is…
By the way, shout out to the song “!!!!!!!” by the Roots for being one of my most listened songs, simply by being virtue of the first song in my entire list. I hear it whenever I forget to switch on shuffle.
[Read More]I listened to yesterday’s songs again with Megan on the couch, and it was kind of a lackluster set. Not that some of those artists haven’t done good things, but it sure didn’t hang together. I guess that’s the hazard of this thing, but here’s hoping today’s songs rock!
Oh, I’ve also added a tasty treat to the front of the playlist today for those that don’t follow me on Twitter. LINK! HE COME TO TOWN!
[Read More]Five Songs International took a break yesterday, which is going to happen occasionally. I’m going to try to never miss two days in a row, but I’m sure that’ll happen as well. But I’m back today with some new tunes!
From black metal beginnings, Ulver has wandered around unpredictably among various styles, with seemingly the only thing tying some of them together is a penchant for drama. This piece, from Atgclvlsscap (and yes, I had to cut and paste that), finds the band working in an ambient mode, obviously far away from the black metal thunder of their origins.
[Read More]This is the first time I’ve written one of these entries not listening on headphones. Instead, I’m pumping out the jams from my laptop while sitting on the couch next to Megan. Nobody cares, Josh! Get to the music!
As I mentioned in the first entry on They Might Be Giants, De La Soul is probably the only band that I’ve been listening to longer than TMBG. I bought Three Feet High and Rising on the strength of being blown away by “Say No Go”, and I haven’t ever stopped listening to them. While they’ve had some ups and downs (the two Bionix albums being the major downs), every De La Soul record release has been an event for me. Their most recent record was an even bigger departure than usual: they crowdfunded it on Kickstarter, and decided to use a pretty novel method of making it. They brought a band into the studio, recorded them playing a wide variety of stuff, and then used that work as a basis for their sampling to make beats. Thus, they didn’t need to clear any samples: they were only sampling themselves. The results are interesting, and worth looking into.
[Read More]When I started doing this, my only real hope was to find and remember some great music from the dusty corners of my own collection, and maybe help somebody else discover a new favorite. Well, mission accomplished on the second point! Feels pretty good. Here’s today’s stuff, maybe you’ll find a new favorite too?
You know what would make ska punk better? A bar band vibe! At least, that’s the conclusion the Blue Meanies reached before recording this song. Also, note that there’s so very little ska left in this track that coming into it cold, you’d never guess that this is ostensibly a ska punk band. I’m moving on.
[Read More]Sorry about six songs yesterday. I don’t know what I was thinking! I was intoxicated with power, I guess. It won’t happen again! At least, until next time. Y’all just missed “Cop” by Swans here, by the way. I’m sure they’ll be back soon, though. In the meantime, enjoy today’s selection.
I divide They Might Be Giants into five eras: pre-Elektra, the Elektra years, post-Elektra, the kid album years, and the current era. Note that even during the kid album years, they put out a couple of non-kid albums (2004’s The Spine and 2007’s The Else), so things aren’t really that neatly divided here. But, personally, I saw something of a creative renaissance after those years of mostly kid records (which are mostly very good, by the way), starting with 2011’s Join Us and continuing to the album this song is from, 2013’s Nanobots. If you fell off the TMBG train a couple decades ago, those two records are something to look into.
[Read More]Just wall-to-wall rock today, except for the bonus track. These things are going to happen! On another note, I stuck in some analytics to see how many of you are reading this. Something like a dozen. Not bad! As always, listen along with me, won’t you?
An admin note: the Dillinger Four track has been excised from YouTube on copyright grounds before, and when I tried to upload it, they rejected it again. Because of that, I’ve done a sixth song here, so there’s still five in the playlist.
[Read More]New arrival at Five Songs Manor is Engravings by Forest Swords, a record I found by reading the upcoming releases for May and wondering about the new record coming. So far, it’s really interesting, although I have to pause it for now to write about some songs. These songs, specifically.
This is a Seattle rap group featuring Sabzi (of The Blue Scholars) and RA Scion on the mic. If you’ve heard the Blue Scholars, you’re familiar with Sabzi’s beats, and if you haven’t, you should fix that. At any rate, you’re likely to equally enjoy both groups. Since I like Sabzi’s work, I like this album a lot. I particularly like the piano on this track. And, as always, I’m always a sucker for artists repping the 206.
[Read More]A new month for Five Songs! How long will this keep going? I don’t know, but I’ve managed to get past the first couple weeks just fine, so maybe this has some legs. This entry also has a playlist.
Oh man, we just miseed Steel Pole Bath Tub’s “Train to Miami” for this collection. Ugh, such a good song. But rules are rules!
NoFX delivering a super sophisticated message with this song, which can be summed up as “mean people suck”. The breathtaking nuance they display here would be a hallmark of their punk career. Anyway, NoFX is one of those immutable yardsticks of music, a benchmark that you can use to explain other bands. “Yeah, they’re like NoFX crossed with…” or “they sort of sound like NoFX, only they…”. That sort of thing.
[Read More]You know what I should do in these intros? I should probably just mention new music I’ve picked up recently. christian fitness has a new record that I just picked up, and it’s good so far. And I bought the new album from Nightbringer, a black metal album that I’m looking forward to diving into.
As always, we have today’s songs!
When they first started out, Cypress Hill was something really strange, with super squeaky beats based around dusty jazz samples and the odd nasal flows of B Real. The first two Cypress Hill records are unique and a lot of fun, although, um, fairly limited lyrical content. By the time we hit this, their fifth album, they were really kind of on fumes. This was a double album, with one rap record, and the other being a rock crossover. It didn’t exactly go well. Rap/rock crossovers seldom do. The rap disc is better, but still won’t make you forget the first two albums. This song, needless to say, is from the rock one.
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