Edna's Goldfish

Joe Lally, “Day Is Born”

The first track to Lally’s second record, giving a good idea of what sort of bass-forward tunes you can expect to hear from him. If you’ve listened to Fugazi’s instrumentals, you’ll have a decent picture in mind also, even though Lally does sing.

House of Lightning, “James Brown”

Part of the Floor family tree, House of Lightning shares members with Floor and, as you can hear, aesthetics. If you’re looking for more stuff in that vein, of really big riffs and melodies and some clean singing, you’re in the right spot.

Nation of Ulysses, “The Sound of Young America”

I need more art punk in my life. Nation of Ulysses was unafraid to just go for it, with their over-the-top political polemics, the atonal honking of the trumpet, the odd song structures, or whatever other pretensions they were willing to put on. They also carried it off with straight faces, which just helped carry things. As I get older, I’m happier with bands that staked out their own territory. Nobody really sounds like the Nation of Ulysses, and that’s really valuable.

This is almost the full Five Songs experience today, we’re just missing some incomprehensible metal.

Edna’s Goldfish, “World Over”

Ahh, 1998. With The Mighty Mighty Bosstones at the peak of their popularity, with “The Impression That I Get” as a pretty big hit, it’s not a surprise that there were lots of followers who got record contracts in their wake. And so, Edna’s Goldfish. Difficult not to picture my old Civic when I listen to this.

Back! Caught you lookin’ for the same thing!

M83, “Go!”

I don’t really know what to think about M83. At times, it’s kind of bland, emotionally manipulative but forgettable post-rock. But there are times when it’s energetic and nostalgia driven fun. Junk leans into the past especially hard, which makes it my favorite M83 album. This song, corny as it is, is a blast.

Tortoise, “Learning Curve”

Uh, speaking of post-rock. Well, nobody would describe this as “energetic”. Or “fun”.

Driving on through Sunday! Even though I’m actually writing this on Friday! Time is confusing! Music is forever!

Einstürzende Neubauten, “Trinklied”

We haven’t hit Neubauten proper yet, although we did encounter Alexandre Hacke with his work with The Unsemble. Einstürzende Neubauten (literally, “collapsing new buildings”) is sort of the prototypical industrial band, as opposed to industrial dance. They make use of noise, atypical percussion, and the sounds of industry to make challenging music. Early in their career, it was about noise and chaos. Towards their mid-period, there was a steer towards more recognizable rhythms and even, yes, some danceable stuff. Later on, things moved more towards ambient compositions. Always, though, their music and art has had an edge, and they’ve always been one of the most interesting bands working. They even did crowdfunding way before the crowd did, way back in 2002.