Dr. Dre

Dr. Dre, “Mix Tape 2 Track 1”

My understanding is that this is from a mix tape that Dre used to sell at the Compton Swap Meet, which eventually made its way onto the internet. I’ve got three of these things, and it’s a delight to just hear this stuff in its raw form. Enjoy!

Farside, “Search for Ourselves”

Farside is one of the reasons I stopped making playlists on YouTube. I used to find tracks on the service, and if they were missing, I’d upload it to an unlisted video and add it to my playlist. It was kind of useful to have them there, but a problem that would happen is that the content ID system there would flag stuff. Fine, whatever, other people should get any (non-existant) royalties. But sometimes, labels or artists would have songs as prohibited uploads, so I just couldn’t host some songs there. Pain in the ass! Oh, also YouTube is a cesspool.

The Beatles, “Let It Be”

When I find myself with no ideas / struggling to write a blog / I fall back on dumb jokes / mail it in

TWRP, “Only the Best”

OK, I don’t love those lyrics there, but in the spirit of of mailing it in, I’m not going to take another run at them. Pulling aside the curtain a bit here at Five Songs Agglomerated, I pretty much just write these entries in stream-of-consciousness as I listen to the music, go back and just do a quick edit pass to fix typos or any really duff wording, and then call it good. Revising the joke goes agains the spirit of the thing, I think.

Uzeda, “Female”

You know, there’s more than a little similarity between Uzeda and the Dog Faced Hermans. There’s no personnel connection between them, but there’s a shared space of a kind of arty noise rock. Excellent stuff.

Squirrel Bait, “Kick the Cat”

No! Squirrel Bait, I just said nice things about you the other day. Don’t kick the cat!

N.W.A, “Express Yourself”

When I worked at WRCT, there was shelf in the DJ booth with all the new releases that the program manager wanted us all to work into our shows. We were required to play a couple songs from that shelf each hour. You could choose whatever you wanted and there were always plenty of things across genres. To assist us with the task, every new release that came into the station was listened to by a member of the staff and we wrote up some quick notes on an index card to help DJs make good choices. A key thing to note on those cards was which songs were safe to play outside “safe harbor” - in other words, which ones didn’t have profanity.

I never write checks, so this blog is the only thing that I write the wrong year on after the calendar filps over.

Marvin Gaye, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”

A stone-cold classic.

Polyrhythmics, “Cosimo”

A lovely EP from 2020, Fondue Party continues a string of winners from Polyrhythmics. That sax solo is delicious, I love that they gave it so much space.

Dr. Dre, “Still D.R.E.”

Damn, this album turned 20 today. I still think of it as the “new” Dre release. And there’s been a more recent Dre record!

Vertigo, “Sit Down and Shut Up”

Psychedelic noise rockers Vertigo had one final EP in 1993, Driver #43, which might have been their best single release. By this point, they were playing pretty tight, and everything was really hitting. It’s a shame that they never had the chance to build further on this record.

Bummer, “Reefer Sadness”

Noise rock today! Bummer hail from Kansas, and it’s very Midwestern in style. All burly growling guitars and shouting, descended from the Chicago tradition. This is a satisfying record if you like the style.

Merle Haggard, “Are The Good Times Really Over (I Wish A Buck Was Still Silver)”

Personally, I look to my country music artists for trenchant commentary on monetary policy.

They Might Be Giants, “Bangs”

The opening of Mink Car, the last record TMBG released for Warner Bros. I suppose being released on 9/11 was probably an ill omen for the sales of the record. It contains some really good stuff (“Man, It’s So Loud In Here” is one of my favorites of all-time from them), but overall is kind of treading water a little bit. It was after this album that TMBG began making kids’ records, and after a few of those, I think they really kind of started progressing again.

Son Lux, “Change is Everything”

Ryan Lott’s project Son Lux went from a one-man project to recording as a full band on Bones, and the resulting input of two more people has resulted in a more expansive and interesting album to me than the previous ones. There’s a lot of this that kind of gives off Flaming Lips vibes, honestly.

Uzeda, “What I Meant When I Called Your Name”

Noise rock out of Sicily, Uzeda have been active for 28 years and made only four albums and an EP in that time, a blistering pace that even Shellac have managed to best. Well, whatever, those albums are pretty excellent.

Hey, a quick note here before we get to the main act - we went all of November with a post every single day! NOT BAD

Nickel Creek, “Somebody More Like You”

One of my favorite Nickel Creek songs, with the acid lyrics really carrying things, and of course the lovely harmonies are as fun as always. One of the things that I really like about Nickel Creek is how percussive the playing is, so you don’t even really notice that there’s no drums.

Zion I, “Radio”

Zion I always incorporates other styles of music into their hip-hop, and here, we’ve got something that kind of sounds kind of like conventional adult contemporary rock. Maybe there’s a reason other bands haven’t tried this sort of thing much?

Elvis Costello, “Party Girl”

From the extras on the deluxe reissue of Armed Forces, I sort of wish that the first bit here turned into the live version of “Surrender” from Cheap Trick. Or, uh, “Jimmy James”, which used the sample from the live version of “Surrender”.

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, “Hora Cero”

For those who are only recently tuning in to these things, I don’t always have much to say. And usually nothing significant. So, given that, here’s the tremendous insight we have for this song: I like the trumpet.

Wormed, “57889330816,1”

I’m told that Wormed lyrics are about, like, space and shit. An assertion that I can only respond to by tilting my head like a confused dog. This is a little interstitial track during the tech-death madness that is Krighsu. If this sounds intriguing to you, congratulations! You have brain worms!