Devin the Dude

竹村延和 (Takemura Nobukazu), “Meteor”

This is from his 2000 release, Sign, and is the outro piece after the 35-minute “Souvenir in Chicago”. A thing I really like about this is the texture of the sounds, a lot of them are stretched, torn, distorted, and otherwise manipulated in surprising little ways. A track that rewards a close listen.

Slayer, “War Ensemble”

After slowing down a bit from Reign in Blood to South of Heaven, Slayer came back roaring with Seasons in the Abyss. This is yet another classic thrash record, the final Slayer record featuring Dave Lombardo during the initial run, so it was kind of the capstone for that era of the band. While I think I still like Reign in Blood a bit more, this record is a very close second from them, and is absolutely one of the critical texts of thrash and all of metal.

NoMeansNo, “Forget Your Life”

NoMeansNo mostly played super dextrous, complicated hardcore, but they were capable of slowing down the tempo for pounding tunes like this one. It’s the doom metal equivalent of hardcore. Doomcore? A quick search suggests that doomcore is some EDM subgenre. Harddoom doesn’t work either? Eh, fuck it.

Devin the Dude, “To tha X-Treme”

Sorry, couldn’t write an entry here, too busy nodding my head the entire time.

Devin the Dude, “Do What You Wanna Do”

You’re never going to guess what this song is about! (It’s weed.)

The Pixies, “All the Saints”

23 years passed between Trompe Le Monde and Indie Candy, time where Frank Black spent a lot of time making records with a whole lot of people that weren’t the Pixies. But by the time he got around to making records with them again, it was only a partial reunion. Kim Deal didn’t return to the band, and as much as I like Santiago and Lovering, the first record really sounded like yet another Frank Black project and not the Pixies.

Palace Brothers, “You Will Miss Me When I Burn”

A repeat, but remains a lovely tune.

Fuck The Facts, “Shadows Collide”

Long running Canadian grindcore artists Fuck the Facts cranked out Desire Will Rot in 2015, producing an album that is interesting not just because of the stretches of blast fury, but thanks to the interludes in-between. I find grindcore more interesting when it provides those moments of contrast, it helps the crazy tempos stand out even more.

Manorexia, “Zithromax Jitters”

I think I mention this every time Manorexia pops up, but that’s infrequent enough that I think it’s OK: Manorexia is one of J.G. Thirlwell’s (Foetus, Wiseblood, Steroid Maximus, Clint Ruin, etc) aliases. Like Steroid Maximus, Manorexia is dedicated to cinematic instrumental music, and it’s not at all clear what differentiates the two aliases. At any rate, this is an interesting album.

Veda Brown, “Living A Life Without Love”

You can tell within seconds that this is a Stax record. This is obviously from relatively late in the Stax run, when the soul sound of the label had evolved in this lush direction. I’ve always preferred the rawer style of the earlier records, but this is still a lovely sound.

Philip Cochran and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble, “Malcolm X”

This is from a compilation called Soul of a Nation: Afro-Centric Visions in the Age of Black Power - Underground Jazz, Street Funk & the Roots of Rap 1968-79, and, well…it’s pretty much that. I’m afraid I’m extra unqualified to talk about this album, but it’s outstanding.

They Might Be Giants, “Nanobots”

I always like it when TMBG build a chorus out of two distinct vocals lines like this. And the arrangement is lovely on this song, the horns adding a richness that really helps it stand out. Nanobots has too many only OK tunes for to be top-tier, but it’s still a good album. I’m going to create an album ranking for them one of these days. Multiple albums have been released since I started doing this!

Today’s tunes!

Queens of the Stone Age, “The Way You Used To Do”

2013’s …Like Clockwork never really grabbed me (despite extensive critical acclaim), so I was pretty delighted that 2017’s Villains got me pretty fired up. Mark Ronson helped to sharpen things up, and the whole thing feels pretty glam-y and fired up. This song, for instance, is just razor sharp, from Homme’s guitar tone to the vamp of his lyrics.

It’s not great today.

Ghostface Killah, “Woodrow the Base Head”

I like the way that the music keeps coming in and out of this interstitial. That’s about the best I can say.

Jean Grae, “Fade Out”

The last track from her debut record, Attack of the Attacking Things (which is an amazing name), this album established Grae as an excellent new artist in hip hop. Her rhymes were really interesting, often twisty things, and it made for a pretty different record from most of what you could hear at the time. The only problem with her is that she just hasn’t made very many records. And this song is kind of short.

Here at Five Songs, we never stop working for you, the tiny handful of people who put up with this, day in and day out. So, today, we’re going the extra 20% with six songs! Such generosity!

Johnny Too Bad And The Strikeouts, “Nineteen Fifty Two”

If you look at that band name and say to yourself “that sounds like a fourth-tier third-wave band”, congratulations! You’ve probably consumed too much Five Songs!

Some titans of the rock underground today! I really like this set a lot. Shame it didn’t go one more song, Einstürzende Neubauten popped up next with “Vanadium-I-Ching”, which would have been a fun addition to the list. Oh well, can’t go changing the rules any time I like!

Pixies, “Alec Eiffel”

Here, we’re getting a track from the last pre-breakup Pixies album, Trompe Le Monde. At the time, I was pretty disappointed in Bossanova, for whatever reason, but really liked this one. At this remove, it’s not clear what my beef was with Bossanova and it’s pretty similar to Trompe. While both records are off from the peak of their first records, they’re still both excellent and well worth having.