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Here’s today!

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, “Born Bad”

Freedom Tower: No Wave Dance Party 2015 was a throwback for the Blues Explosion, bringing back the stripped down sound that they had really moved away from after Now I Got Worry. It’s pretty much just back to two guitars, Jon’s strange yelping/posturing, and of course Russel Simins wrecking it on the drums. What’s nice about it is that it doesn’t really sound like a throwback, it mostly sounds like a lost recording from that time. Which is great!

SIX SONGS

Buck-O-Nine, “Tear Jerky”

I often wonder at the functioning of the human brain. I frequently have trouble using the correct “M” name for the various folks and dogs who live in this house with me (in my defense, I’ve never used the dog’s name for one of the humans, but that time is probably coming). But I can still whistle along to the horn lines of forgotten ska records. Good use of gray matter there!

Excellent one today.

Joe Lally, “Message From Earth”

I don’t know why I’m surprised at how minimal Lally is willing to get, given how even the most spare Fugazi songs still had a lot going on. But, it’s silly to get surprised by that, as Lally has always clearly been talented, and there’s no reason to believe he’d just make Fugazi Light once on his own.

J Church, “Chemicals”

We’ve discussed many times how J Church has put out a ton of compilations in their time, but when I look at their normal albums, I think Prophylaxis is my favorite of the bunch. It’s hard to pinpoint why exactly, as J Church didn’t really vary their sound much over the years. I suspect some of that is just that it was one of their earliest, so I spent more time with it. When you encounter an album at 19, it makes an impression! But, whatever, it’s my favorite! You can’t take that away!

Today!

Thou, “Find the Cost of Freedom”

Metal has links to folk in a bunch of ways, ranging from the atavistic impulses of black metal, the explicit crossover of various folk metal acts, the lack of fear of being totally uncommercial, or even just the willingness of metal bands to strip things down to provide contrast, like Thou is doing here.

Louis Armstrong, “Ain’t Misbehaving”

We, of course, are well aware that I don’t know shit. About anything, really. But I have to do something to entertain myself while listening, so I read a little potted bio of Armstrong. Why not? And this bio declared that Armstrong is the most influential figure in jazz. Huh.

Finished a big thing at work, so let’s celebrate Five Songs style! (sitting in a basement, drinking, listening to music through one headphone) HIT IT PLEXASAURUS REX!

TV/TV$, “Liberal 4 Me”

One day, I’m gonna put together “Screeching Weasel or Not Screeching Weasel?” as a quiz, and it’s gonna be fuckin’ hard.

Violent Femmes, “Kiss Off [Live]”

Violent Femmes is one of the grand treasures in all of modern rock, the purest distilled essence of teenage frustration, captured and frozen in amber for all time. “Kiss Off” is, of course, one of the highlights of that record (an album composed almost entirely of highlights), with its instantly memorable count-up section that everybody loves singing along to. It sincerely gives me chills.

Here’s today.

Mouse on Mars, “First: Break”

A thing that unifies a lot of my music taste is a certain amount of boundary pushing and unpredictability. It’s why on the electronic side I tend to prefer noisy, hyperactive stuff rather than music from the ambient side of things. This spastic…tune?…is a good example. It doesn’t make any goddamn sense at all, but whatever, it’s fun.

Chance the Rapper, “Summer Friends”

There’s a warmth and humanity in Chance’s work that is lovely to hear. It’s as human as that Mouse on Mars track is cold and mechanical. We here at Five Songs contain multitudes!

Today!

Atmosphere, “Next To You”

On one hand, I think it’s admirable that Atmosphere is willing to experiment with their music and stray very far from the hip-hop that they originally made their names with. On the other, though, when they do too much of this kind of thing, it can get pretty old. This song, from Fishing Blues, is fine, but isn’t really why I listen to Atmosphere.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Apache Rose Peacock”

OK, let’s take a moment to step back and just admire the production job on this. Not because it’s great, or adds a ton to the music, or anything like that. No, just listen to how immaculate it is. It’s squeaky clean! Every sound is perfectly isolated, perfectly recorded. There’s not an iota of accidental noise anywhere in this. You could perform surgery inside this song, as long as you got the boys to, I dunno, put surgical masks on their junk or whatever.

Good one today.

All, “Vida Blue”

Even on their later albums, All could still sometimes summon up some nicely soaring power pop stuff. I mean, this is basically just Cheap Trick, but whatever, Cheap Trick is fun.

Sonic Youth, “Dirty Boots”

Meanwhile, this is basically what it sounds like when Sonic Youth tries to play a pop song. This is the song that opens Goo, and it lets you know that the band has not fallen off at all from Daydream Nation. There are some bands and albums that are unmistakably at their time, and they only really make sense when viewed within their original context. Then there are bands like Sonic Youth, who at their best sound totally outside of time, as fresh now as when they first made this record [checks] almost 29 years ago? Goddammit, I’m old.

SIX SONGS TODAY

Mix Master Mike, “Supa Wyde Laces”

We had a track from Hello Nasty yesterday, today we’ve got a track from the DJ that joined them with that record. Mix Master Mike was a member of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, the most successful DJ collective around. This is from his solo record, which came out the same year as Hello Nasty, and which at the time, I liked more. Probably wouldn’t be true these days.

Music!

Less Than Jake, “Automatic”

Forget the horns, forget the rest of the surrounding scene, this is just a hell of a fine pop-punk song. Chris DeMakes turns in a great vocal performance here, and there’s nothing I’d change about this tune.

Queen, “Soul Brother”

Geez, speaking of vocal performances. This is one of the bonus tracks on the deluxe re-issue of Hot Space, and it’s a fun addition. By and large, bonus tracks don’t add a ton, but frankly, that album was kind of a mess in the first place, so having a fun vamp like this added is an improvement.