Big Boi

Logic, “The Glorious Five”

I’m old, so I’m out of touch with music. Keeping up with the latest artists and releases requires a lot more hustle than I can really perform. Not to mention that my own personal network just doesn’t dig up stuff for me as much as it used to. It’s a natural thing, and it’s just a fact of agint. Music is a young person’s game. But I’m relatively more in touch with some scenes and genres than others. Hip-hop? I’m hopeless. I’ll just randomly come across artists, and I have no idea of how big they are or aren’t, or their reception. So, Logic - I have this record, I like it. He has a billion records though. How is he perceived? How is the rest of his body of work? No idea! It didn’t used to be this way.

The Roots, “Make My”

Geez, it’s been more than a decade since undun was released. Every now and again, I go look up a band that pops up on here and discover that there are albums they’ve released that I was unaware of. Always a treat! But alas, I was unable to manifest any new Roots records I didn’t already have. I’m sorry I failed you all.

Big Boi, “Apple of My Eye”

Oh, and I am aware of …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, I just realzed that that might not be clear.

METZ, “Drained Lake”

There’s a relentlessness in this kind of noise rock, where the songs specialize in a propulsive beat that just keeps chainsawing ahead regardless of what else is going on. I’ve compared the sound to a malfuntioning machine, and I think in both the steadiness of it and in the harshness of some of the noises it fits. Brilliant stuff.

The Squirrels, “Money”

There’s plenty of hay to be made in mocking the pomposity of big 70s rock. Punk rock, of course, is largely a reaction to it, both in defining everything the aesthetics of punk were not as well as providing a source for mockery. But it’s not limited to just punk, the bloated blimps of AOR are juicy enough targets that everybody takes a shot.

Shuffle is continually reminding me of things that I had forgotten about, and occasionally never knew about in the first place.

Medeski, Martin & Wood, “Just Like I Pictured It”

Jazz artists who add in more than a little soul and funk, Medeski, Martin & Wood have been around for a long time, but I only bought this one album. I think it was mentioned somewhere that there were some hip-hop touches on the record, but it’s been long enough since I bought this that I can’t really recall exactly what the original attraction was. I have to say, I’m really enjoying this song a fair bit.

Something special for today! Our first Reader/Listener Q&A! All of the questions here are actual questions from reader/listeners of Five Songs! Let’s get started!

Q:

OK, that was great! If you’ve got a question for me, eh, that seems unlikely. Here’s some music, though.

Richie Hawtin, “User (02)-A2”

This is one of the most irritating albums (Decks, EFX & 909) in my collection. Not because of the music, mind you - it’s techno, sometimes pretty minimal, mixing together a whole bunch of stuff. No, because of the tags on the songs. Because this is kind of a compilation (and kind of not), the tags on the songs on the album are credited to something like 20 different artists, instead of just Richie Hawtin. In particular, the featured artist on a track is listed as the primary artist. It’s really annoying, and because of how Amazon handles it, means I essentially cannot listen to this album in one go.