Eddie Floyd

Eddie Floyd, “My Girl”

The soul artists of the 60s and 70s went ahead and just covered each other, including even covering truly huge songs. Songs don’t really get bigger than “My Girl”, but that didn’t stop Eddie Floyd here, who was no slouch himself. The comparable situation just doesn’t seem to happen much with rock, certainly not with the same frequency.

Royal Headache, “Wouldn’t You Know”

Pretty straight ahead rock out of Australia, a recommendation from an internet friend, and a fun album. I know nothing about them other than the fact that they’re from Australia, though. Sorry!

Black Moon, “Enta da Stage”

Black Moon’s 1993 classic, Enta da Stage, could not have been released at a worse time to get attention. The synthesis of the jazz-inflected beats of Native Tongues and the street rhymes of New York City would have been massively influential had it not landed at roughly the same time as Midnight Mauraders (showing how far these kinds of beats could be taken) and Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (showing how far these kinds of rhymes could go). Nevertheless, the album is a serious banger.

Xasthur, “Purgatory Spiral”

Another track from Xasthur, the weird experimental metal act that I ended up with courtesy of a Hydra Head grab bag. It’s not really, uh, my bag.

Converge, “Sadness Comes Home”

All We Love We Leave Behind is my favorite Converge record, where their hardcore reached a pinnacle of bananas complexity that it ends up being compulsively listenable. It’s sometimes the case that hardcore bands lose their edge as they go, as increased polish starts exposing simple songs and reveals all the flaws. It’s a rare hardcore band that gets better as they go, but Converge managed that.

Eddie Floyd, “Don’t Tell Your Mama (Where You’ve Been)”

We Love Song Titles (With Parentheticals)!

The Books, “Smells Like Content”

Can I engage in some old-fart bloviating? Of course I can, nobody else has the password to this site so nobody can stop me! The labeling of all videos as just “content” is really unfortunate. It signals a commodification of creative work that only serves the massive aggregators that control what we see, and yet people have willingly adopted the nomenclature. And lumping together criticism, reviews, buying guides, how-tos, and everything else together as just a homogonized slurry doesn’t even help viewers find what they want. I hate it!

Valentine Six, “Always Is My Name”

Here’s a little bit of an oddball. Valentine Six put out one album in 1997, full of this kind of lounge-y sort of thing. Clearly more than a little Tom Waits in the DNA here, maybe just a little bit of Nick Cave. It’s pretty good, and I haven’t thought about this band in ages.

Morrissey, “He Knows I’d Love To See Him”

Like lots of other people, I was curious to see what the various members of the Smiths would get up to after that band broke apart. I picked up a couple of Morrissey’s EPs, and honestly, didn’t really follow him from there. I mean, yeah, this is clearly a Morrissey song, but I guess I had enough of him from the Smiths’ albums?

The Jam, “Private Hell”

The middle album of the Jam’s peak trio, Setting Sons, is probably the slickest and most commercial sounding of the three. While the songs are of course fantastic, the overall approach makes it my least favorite of those three records. But just to be clear, it’s still a fantastic record, I just liste to the other two albums a little more often.

Powerrun, “In A Dream”

Powerrun is a *wave band, maybe a synthwave band? I can keep decent track of metal microgenres, but I get out of my depth pretty fast with electronic stuff, even though I listen to a fair bit of it. ANyway, this is just a little trifle, but it’s a fun record.

Look, this is every day-ish.

A Forest of Stars, “A Blaze of Hammers”

This is A Blog of Gummi Worms.

Kings Destroy, “W2”

I want to say this was from a Humble Bundle? It’s kind of plodding, and sort of sounds like something that should only be played in the background by some kids playing D&D.

The Channels, “To The New Mandarins”

After the end of Jawbox, J. Robbins primarily focused on being an engineer and producer. This did not stop him from leading a whole string of bands, including Burning Airlines, Office of Future Plans, and today’s band, The Channels. Surprising nobody, this sounds a lot like a J. Robbins record. To my ears, it sounds the most like the final Jawbox record. The Channels only put out this one album, but it’s a good one, and it should go on your list if you like his stuff.

Today’s set is a real barn burner.

Art Brut, “People In Love”

This song, from It’s a Bit Complicated, is a solid encapsulation of Art Brut’s unique brilliance. Art Brut only makes sense to someone that has consumed a ton of pop and rock, and internalized all the cliches from them. If you’re that person, Art Brut’s send ups of all that stuff will just hit squarely.

Blackalicious, “The Fabulous Ones”

We’ve had Gift of Gab as a solo artist, but here he is on the breakthrough Blackalicious LP, Nia. From the lush, jazzy beats to the incredible rhymes, Blackalicious immediately became one of the highlights of hip-hop. This record still sounds fresh, 18 years later (OH GOD I’M OLD), and it and the follow-up Blazing Arrow are one of the strongest one-two punches of any rap act ever.

Today’s music!

Eddie Floyd, “I’ve Never Found A Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)”

I get itchy when we go too long without a Stax track. This is one of Eddie Floyd’s biggest hits, later covered by Al Green on his magnificent Let’s Stay Together.

400 Blows, “A Man of Many Words”

There have been multiple bands called 400 Blows (all named after the Truffaut film, one presumes), but this is the noise rock one from California. This song comes from Black Rainbow, and is full of this kind of start/stop fun and yelling. Good times!

A peek behind the curtains here at Five Songs International (a subsidiary of Songsanto): I sometimes write these things ahead of time. Like the weekend ones are usually paved out ahead of time. Still the same rules, though: I pick a time, start shuffle, and write about those five songs. But, in order to keep the flow of quality (?) stuff flowing, sometimes they’re not written on the day that they’re posted. Like, for instance, this was written on Friday while I ate lunch. Doesn’t make the songs any less good (or bad? I don’t know yet!).