Carla Thomas

Parliament, “(You’re A Fish And I’m A) Water Sign”

While I always prefer the more upbeat stuff from Parliament, their ballads were also often great, certainly during their peak period. This comes from the last great Parliament record (Motor Booty Affair), but not the last great record from the Parliament/Funkadelic collective.

Black Eyed Peas, “BEP Empire”

Before the Black Eyed Peas became massive pop music successes, before they were cranking out deeply irritating hits, before they entered the collective consciousness as THE BLACK EYED PEAS, they were an underground hip-hop act that put out a couple of decent albums. There’s a little Black Star here, which is of course welcome. So, what happened? Well, one major thing you’ll notice about those first two records is that one familiar member of the band isn’t there. Fergie joined on the third record, and, well, only the first two albums are worth anything.

If I wanted to point to a “lol random!” kind of playlist, today might be the day.

Minutemen, “Tension”

This song, from The Punch Line, really shows off what made the Minutemen so great. Listen to that rhythm section! Listen to D Boon hanging back on guitar until he can come in for maximum effect! And it’s only 1:20! That this is from their debut album makes it all the more impressive.

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, “Mean People Suck”

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.