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I’ve updated the blogging software on this thing, and I’m even poking around with new themes. Look at me, I’m…well, not professional exactly. Wasting my time? Yeah, let’s go with that. As is now traditional here at Five Songs Inc., you can listen along with me, if that’s something you’re into. Great set of songs this time around!

NoMeansNo, “Machine”

NoMeansNo started as a hardcore band, but unlike most of their peers, hung around for a long time and managed to evolve as they went along. Songs started stretching out more, some jazz started creeping in, and more than a little overt artiness. They were driven by the rhythm section, brothers Rob and John Wright, who were relentlessly inventive. NoMeansNo made my second favorite hardcore album ever, Wrong (two Wrights made a Wrong!), and continued with a string of strong albums including the source of this song, Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy. I’m not sure how much people know them outside of folks living on the west coast during the late 80s/early 90s, but it’s a shame, they should have a higher profile.

I’ll often leave shuffle running for a little while after doing one of these things, and sometimes I get these fantastic runs of songs and artists that would make for some great writeups. I have a lot to say about Operation Ivy! But, alas, that would be cheating. The way I’m doing things is that I decide I’m going to write about songs, and then start up the shuffle machine to see what I get from that moment forward. No retroactive choosing of shuffle runs for me! Luckily, there’s almost always something worth talking about. Listen along with me, won’t you?

It has been pointed out that I should probably have comments enabled on this blog. I’ll see what I can do about turning those on, although fiddling around with Ghost kind of makes me want to turn myself into a ghost. In the meantime, we soldier on! As always, you can listen along here.

Ugly Duckling, “Pay or Quit”

Ugly Duckling is a bit of an odd band, a proud throwback rap group that tries to recall a percieved golden age, with the result that they seem really disconnected from other rap acts. This ends up giving them a bit of a sui generis feel, which is dumb for a band that is explicitly trying to reference and revive the past of their musical genre. Well, whatever. Expect lots of loops, trading the mic back and forth, word-play focused rhymes, and a total lack of profanity. When the formula works, it can be pretty lively, bouncy fun. When it drags, it drags painfully.

It’s my birthday! Hooray! Let’s listen to some music (you can listen along here)!

Spawn of Possession, “Spiritual Deception”

Metal, as a broad genre, is one that I’ve always been perpetually coming to grips with. Despite having embraced plenty of other extreme genres - noise, hardcore, lots of experimental music of all forms - I had always held metal at arms’ length. I certainly listened to a few carefully selected bands, but I never really explored things fully. I mostly looked at many of the ridiculous trappings and endless subgenres, and kind of gave it a miss.

Let’s get started! I assume everybody has read the intro, because I posted it right below, but briefly: I’m going to listen to the five random songs from my collection, link them as best I can, and write about whatever comes to mind while I’m listening. You can listen to a playlist of the songs on YouTube.

Kid Koala, “Page 165: The Date”

Aaaand we’re off to an inauspicious start. This is a little atmospheric piece, which is an accompaniment to a graphic novel, Nufonia Must Die. He’s a turntablist and electronic artist, mostly, and towards the playful end of the spectrum. There’s not much to talk about with this song withouth the graphics, so instead, I’ll just talk about how Kid Koala is one of these infuriating people who is a talented artist in multiple media. In lieu of linking to this song, which doesn’t make any sense, I’ll instead just bring your attention to another of his songs, “Nerdball”, from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome:

Since nobody is reading this blog, I don’t think anybody is going to care if I branch out beyond just the game design things I’ve been posting (which nobody reads). So, today, I’m going to start a daily-ish series that will, if nothing else, provide more things for nobody to read. I’m pumped!

ConsimWorld is a gaming community that I’ve been part of for a really long time, long enough to meet several good friends. One of those good friends has a folder where we just discuss things. A frequent topic is music, and a frequent game is to list the last five songs that shuffling your music collection produces. I usually participate in that, and usually try and provide links to the songs as well as some commentary on them. I think the commentary is often mundane, is probably of interest only to me, and likely isn’t well-written. So, what am I going to do? I’m going to hoist it into visibility, where more people can be exposed to it. In the theoretical case where people actually read this, of course.