Chemical People

Idlewild, “These Wooden Ideas”

It’s not always clear ahead of time if an album or band will click or not. Reviews and comparisons can take you only so far, and until you sit down with a record and really try it out, you’ll just never know. On paper, Idlewild should have been up my alley. And this is fine, but there’s no spark for me. I suppose it’s good that surprises still happen in this process, otherwise it would be mechanical and dull, and those exciting times when something is perfect for you are worth seeking out. I mean, if our tastes were predictable, we could build ourselves big recommendaiton engines, and people would just sit around and listen to whatever the machines suggest. Thank god that’s not going to happen!

Gnarls Barkley, “Gone Daddy Gone”

It takes a lot of guts to cover anything from the sui generis Violent Femmes. It’s such a beloved album, and such an iconic set of performances, that you’re very much always going to be compared against perfection. I think the only way to go would be to really re-imagine the songs, but Gnarls Barkley doesn’t do that. So, uh, I’d rather just be listening to the Violet Femmes.

The Solids, “Over The Sirens”

Guess how many people are in this band? Correct, two! That places them square in one of the major interests of Five Songs: Loud Rock Duos. They’re not as outre as someone like Lightning Bolt, they’re more towards the Big Business end of things. Only the one record from them, though.

Pavement, “Two States”

You ever wonder how often you’ve listened to albums you love? Slanted & Enchanted was released in April of 1992, and I bought it the day it came out. I think I probably listened to it a couple times a week for the first year or so, and then maybe once a week on average for the rest of my time in college, and then maybe every other week for the next decade. And then down to maybe…once a month? For the next fifteen years? Let’s add that up - have I listened to this album 400 times? Jesus.

We here at Five Songs often find ourselves apologizing for our content around here. With the random nature of what shuffle coughs up, sometimes it’s not great.

Uh, in other news, here’s today.

clipping., “Taking Off”

The lesson of clipping., beyond any other, is how much space there still remains for rap to continue to stretch out across other types of music and how much there remains to experiment with. We’ve seen noise marry with rap with tremendous success, and that should indicate that there still remains so many frontiers left to conquer.

You know, I didn’t think it could really get more third wave-y around here, but it seems like New Shuffle might be even more fond of the stuff. But, you know, here you go!

Death From Above 1979, “Never Swim Alone”

Pounding drums and bellowing through distortion is a time honored formula that almost always gets me going. Just big, pounding, and shameless. Delightful!

Less Than Jake, “Glumble”

Lots of Less Than Jake recently. This comes from Losers, Kings, And Things We Don’t Understand, a compilation of the various non-album cuts that they produced before and around the time of their first proper album, Pezcore. In these early years, Less Than Jake was really more of a punk band than anything else, but they did a good job with it. As always, it’s more down to the energy and hooks than anything else with pop punk.

Today!

5ive Style, “Father Time”

Composed of folks from various post-rock bands such as Tortoise and Isotope 217, 5ive Style are themselves very post-rock themselves. They have a looser, groovier kind of vibe compared to their parent bands, however. Overall, their two albums are both pretty fun.

Chemical People, “I Gotta Know”

From their self-titled record. It’s kind of funny to listen to this stuff now. It’s a little hard to see exactly what I saw in this back in the day. This song is just a by-the-numbers tribute to really old rock. It’s fine?

Here’s today’s list.

Wilco, “The Late Greats”

I’ve been kind of hard on this album (A Ghost Is Born), but that’s mostly due to the somewhat aimless wankery found on some of the songs. Outside of those, though, it’s a pretty sharp album.

The White Stripes, “Little People”

We’ve had Jack White pop up with The Raconteurs, but this is the first time we’ve had the band that made him famous. I’m not sure I need to introduce the White Stripes, do I? Stripped down blues-y rock that explored specific creative constraints, the White Stripes strike me as relatively unlikely stars. But stars they were, propelled by some anthemic hits. But this song comes from before they were huge, off their self-titled debut, when the primitivism of the songs was really at the forefront. I don’t think they really hit their stride until the following record, personally.