Posts

Has-Lo, “Everything Is”

The minimal beat here really works well. Not every song can get by on something like this, but Has-Lo pulls it off.

Girls Against Boys, “(I) Don’t Got A Place”

A thing I sometimes wonder about is the extent to which I contradict myself in the archives here. After writing as many entries for songs and bands, I’m sure I’ve said stuff in the past that can’t be reconciled. And I thought to myself, “hey, this is from the Touch & Go records, the last good ones they made, but this isn’t their best record”. I checked the archive, six articles with them, and you know what? 100% consistent! I call the album before this one my favorite from them, twice, and mention that the last Touch & Go record is their last good record. From this sample of one, I can conclude that I’m totally consistent.

Samiam, “Blank Expression”

Samiam, the melodic punk band from Berkley, came out of the gate more or less fully formed. While I think their mid-career albums would be stronger and more refined, their first album still was solid work. I think Samiam was a little too early to catch on to the emo revival that would happen later, and so they’re kind of forgotten today.

Mustard Plug, “Away From Here”

I told my only real Mustard Plug story already, and I don’t want to tell it again. It’s sad! I think it’s understandable that I stopped listening after that, but I gotta say, this is a good little tune. It’s pretty Bosstones, but I like that sound. It’s not their fault they were part of the soundtrack to one of the worst nights of my life.

Marlowe, “Spring Kick”

Marlowe, the collaboration between L’Orange and Solemn Brigham, put out their second album (entitled Marlowe 2) and continued in the same vein. It’s all gnarly breakbeats, surprising samples, and rapid-fire rhymes. Lovely stuff.

Hybrid, “Doomed to Failure”

There are a lot of bands named Hybrid, if you go looking for them. This one is the extreme metal band from the US who put out a couple of albums and disappeared. It’s more like tech death metal than anything, although they’re clearly going for a blend of a lot of different things. This bit where other, non-metal genres are blended in can work, but it’s tricky, and I’m not really sure they pull it off.

Periphery, “The Gods Must Be Crazy!”

Just pure progressive metal here, with the clean singing and studio wizardry that are hallmarks of the genre. This stuff can be really hit or miss for me - for every Coheed & Cambria or The Ocean that hit for me, there’s a, uh, Periphery that doesn’t connect. It’s hard for me to put my finger on why, exactly, other than maybe the songs. This feels to me like it exists only as a showcase for instrumental prowess.

Steady Earnest, “Swim”

At this point in Five Songs’ evolution, we’ve had more than 1500 bands on here, and I honestly cannot recall which ones I’ve introduced properly and which ones I have not. The tags help some - if I haven’t tagged a band, I haven’t introduced them! - but are not perfect. Because sometimes I write random shit instead of talking about the band. This is where a more professional approach here would help. I could go back and look at entries for bands and figure out if I’ve said anything real about them. But let’s be honest: that’s not going to happen.

Killdozer, “Pour Man”

Killdozer were not a joke band. But they were a band that was never really being serious, with Michael Gerald’s vocal delivery on this thing being a good example. Why is he singing like this? Because it’s silly. Does it make the song silly? Well, not really? Kinda?

Beck, “Guess I’m Doing Fine”

Beck, on the other hand, is clearly a joke act.

Smut Peddlers, “Stank MCs”

OK, I’ll let the listener decide if this is a joke act.

Yazz Ahmed, “Bloom”

Yazz Ahmed is a jazz trumpeter and I have two albums from her that I really like. Wish I could describe them, but you know, I don’t know shit about jazz.

Death Grips, “Birds”

This is a great example of the unpredictability of Death Grips. Nothing about this song really makes sense, but it’s all intentional and hits the effect they wanted to achieve. That is, disorientation.

Vertigo, “Sit Down and Shut Up”

Psychedelic noise rockers Vertigo had one final EP in 1993, Driver #43, which might have been their best single release. By this point, they were playing pretty tight, and everything was really hitting. It’s a shame that they never had the chance to build further on this record.

Bummer, “Reefer Sadness”

Noise rock today! Bummer hail from Kansas, and it’s very Midwestern in style. All burly growling guitars and shouting, descended from the Chicago tradition. This is a satisfying record if you like the style.

The Dillinger Escape Plan, “43% Burnt”

I dunno, I’m 100% burnt now!

Neutral Milk Hotel, “April 8th”

I learned about a podcast called Neutral Cider Hotel the other day, and I have to say, I was probably way more amused than I should have been.

Superchunk, “Break the Glass”

Despite being a huge fan of Superchunk from the release of No Pocky For Kitty, I never once managed to catch them in concert until the tour for this record, 26 years after I started listening to them. And you know what? It was a total delight. I was just entranced watching Mac do his thing up there. I wish I could have seen them more often, but at least I got there once.

Prince Paul, “Psycho Linguistics (Convergent Thought)”

Before his masterpiece, A Prince Among Thieves, Prince Paul released an uneven first solo record, Psychoanalysis: What Is It?. There are some good tunes on it, but a lot of kind of self-indulgent meandering, so it’s probably not worth pursuing too much unless you’re very curious.

Thantifaxath, “Eternally Falling”

Thantifaxath have only made one album, Sacred White Noise, but it’s a banger. It’s black metal, but it uses a ton of atmosphere to generate a consistently creepy tone without just relying on howling fury. The ability to dial it back manages to throw the chaotic moments into greater contrast. Mastery of dynamics is such an important thing for all bands, but especially extreme metal bands. Keeping everything on 11 all the time just results in fatigue.