DJ Shadow

Negativland, “[untitled]”

(track 1!) So, a quick primer on Negativland. They’re an avant-garde project that has used sound collages to make experimental pieces going back to their first album in 1980. They’ve always been closely associated with radio, having hosted a weekly radio show called Over the Edge on KPFA and experimenting with various sounds and approaches through that radio show. They’ve used the radio stuff to guide some of their studio projects and tours, taking some of the best bits and developing them further. I’m a big fan of the band and their projects, so they’ll crop up here from time to time.

DJ Shadow, “This Time (I’m Gonna Try It My Way)”

DJ Shadow’s third album, The Outsider, is kind of a mess. It was four years after The Private Press and ten after Endtroducing, and all that time apparently created a lot of ideas that all tried to burst out at the same time. That doesn’t let the whole thing hang together as an album, but it does have plenty of fun songs. It’s also an album that I have learned to appreciate more as time has gone on. It turns out that he didn’t need to make another Endtroducing!

Michael Kiwanuka, “Black Man In A White World”

Kiwanuka’s second album, Love & Hate, is an ambitious album that roams all over the R&B and soul maps, unafraid to stretch out the songs, play with lush arrangements, and challenge listeners. It’s an album that I really prefer to listen to as a full album, because I think it builds on itself well.

DJ Shadow, “Good News”

DJ Shadow followed up his excellent 2016 album The Mountain Will Fall with an EP the next year, called The Mountain Has Fallen. It features a couple of nice collaborations with Nas and Danny Brown, and then it has this. The spastic pace, blurting synths, and swaths of noise seem deliberately hostile paired up with some of his most accessible stuff. Overall, though, it’s a solid EP.

Today!

Apathy, “The Grass Ain’t Greener”

I know that this is dumb of me, but I still find the idea of a rap album exploring the darker side of Connecticut kind of hilarious. And, you know, there’s plenty of material there! The album itself is very good, and Apathy did a bunch of the production himself, which is always fun. This song wasn’t one of the ones he did himself, though.

One of the things I’m doing with my restart of this project is really kind of taking the schedule as it comes. If I don’t feel like doing an entry some day, I’m not going to sweat it. Hopefully, that will make sure that I keep going for plenty of time. So, let’s see what we’ve got today!

NoFX, “The Cause”

I wonder if my kids will listen to this kind of punk when they get older. I wonder if any kids do? It is absolutely true that I haven’t got a clue what most kids listen to, so all I really know is that I still see kids wander around in Dead Kennedys gear and the like. So maybe?

Today!

Gaunt, “Duh”

Does any song ever need to be longer than the 1:36 of this song? Yeah, of course, why would you ask that question? But damn, this shit is EFFICIENT at getting the rock into your face. Gaunt ruled, y’all.

Gift of Gab, “Everything Is Fine”

This song features the legendary George Clinton as a guest, which is fun. And honestly, this beat sounds like something from The Streets, and now I kind of want to hear a collaboration between Gift of Gab and the Streets for real. And maybe George Clinton? Why not!

Kind of distant and/or futuristic there for a while, until we hit the last song.

Sigur Rós, “Untitled 8”

Icelandic post-rock group Sigur Rós make long, abstract songs that pretty much all sound like the soundtrack to something. Despite this theoretically being something I should be very into, this album (( )) did nothing for me, and I haven’t picked up any of the rest of their stuff. I’m not sure why.

I do love it when something random to even me pops up. Listen along, won’t you?

Bob Marley & The Wailers, “Feel Alright”

This song is part of those “Complete Wailers” compilations, this coming from the period from 1967-1972. That makes it an early track, possibly pre-dating any of their full albums. As always with many Jamaican artists, their discography can be very confusing to try and get on top of after the fact.

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.