Firewater

Pinkwash, “No Real Witness”

I feel like every time Pinkwash comes up, I say something equivalent to “hey, this is neat, I keep forgetting about this!” I wish I could say that I’d grown past that, but no, I do still keep forgetting about this. It’s a fun record! But, I can report some growth: I checked to see if they have another record. No, they do not. Still!

Firewater, “The Beat Goes On”

Across a discography that stretches across seven albums ranging from incredible to great, there’s one that stands out. Mostly by being kind of superfluous. This is from that record, 2003’s Songs We Should Have Written. It’s a covers record, and it’s not bad, but it just doesn’t rise to their original records.

Ghostface Killah, “Run”

On The Pretty Toney Album, Ghostface really broke out from the shadow of the Wu-Tang Clan. Not that he transcended it or anything, but this record is really off on its own thing, it doesn’t really sound like a Wu-Tang record. Other than Ghostface’s presence, of course. But I think that’s a good thing, it’s enabled him to have a great career, with no real barriers to where he wanted to go. Because of that, it’s probably my second favorite Ghostface record.

Afghan Whigs, “Retarded”

Uh, yikes.

“Television’s gone / I’m alone with Lucifer / what a drag” is such an outstanding summary of Greg Dulli’s lyrical work with the Whigs. Shame about the slurs, though.

The Temptations, “I Wish It Would Rain”

A thing that gets a little lost about Motown is that a lot of it is reduced to just the same handful of the biggest hits these days. And those songs are great, sure, but there’s so much awesome stuff just a tiny bit deeper in their catalog. This was a decent hit back in the day, but has largely disappeared from people’s memory, and it’s a great tune.

No Age, “Life Prowler”

As always, Five Songs is a pro-duo place, which is something we feel compelled to mention every single time one comes up. It’s just one of our loveable quirks, like not knowing shit about jazz or using the royal we, but only inconsistently! Shoddy, rushed writing, or deliberate, stylistic choice? Nobody knows!

Solids, “Cold Hands”

Another duo! Solids only made this one album, 2013’s Blame Confusion, but it’s a ripper. If you like what you hear, you’re in for a treat!

Rocket From the Crypt, “Shy Boy”

We had a track from this album just a couple days ago, and I guess my opinion hasn’t changed in those two days. Still a good record, still not totally put together. This riff is a classic RFTC riff, though.

Firewater, “Another Perfect Catastrophe”

Nice of shuffle to give us a saxophone after hitting us with a sax-less RFTC track. This is a good example of their “wedding band gone wrong” aesthetic right here.

Palace Brothers, “I Tried To Stay Healthy For You”

This is from the first Palace Brothers album, when it was not at all clear exactly who Palace Brothers were or who was playing on the album. It turned out to be Will Oldham, of course, who played with the Palace moniker for a while before recording under his own name and then Bonnie “Prince” Billy. While I think he’d do better work later as he settled in, the starkness of the arrangements and the gloom of the lyrics result in a super effective album for setting a mood. (That mood is “bummer”.)

Ice Cube, “No Vaseline”

Ice Cube ended the explosive Death Certificate with a savage diss track on N.W.A, one that N.W.A wasn’t able to remotely respond to. They kind of didn’t really even try. While the homophobia in the song makes it jarring to listen to these days, I still can’t help but admire how hard Cube went at his former bandmates.

Firewater, “Some Strange Reaction”

I was pretty bummed out by the dissolution of Cop Shoot Cop, another band that seemingly was destroyed by a major label contract. The marriage of the punishing rhythms and samples of industrial dance with Tod Ashley’s emotional lyrics and delivery was something pretty special. Luckily, Ashley didn’t wait too long to start up a new project which would quickly surpass Cop Shoot Cop. The first Firewater album, Get Off The Cross, We Need The Wood For The Fire, set the template for the rest of the band’s career. Borrowing bits and pieces from all sorts of music traditions, but centered around Ashley’s cynical world view, he described the band as a “wedding band gone wrong”. This is the first song on the first album, and what a way to kick things off.

Firewater, “This Is My Life”

One of the highlights on the best Firewater album, Golden Hour. It’s an album that attempts to answer the question “what if we just made the whole album out of highlights”.

Calexico, “Yours and Mine”

Hot damn, shuffle bringing the fire today! Garden Ruin was the follow-up to my favorite Calexico record, Feast of Wire. With this album, Calexico nudged slightly further away from the mariachi sounds being quite as dominant as prior records, with a little more country and folk creeping in to replace it. There are also no instrumentals on the album, another break with the past. That’s not to say there aren’t any southwestern sounds on the album, just that there is a little less influence. This song is a fine example, this is pretty much just pure country. But lovely!

Aden, “New Fast”

During the early 90s, parallel to grunge, there was a growing movement of indie pop bands that didn’t make a lot of headway, but were a recognizable subculture. As the 90s went on, a billion of these pillowy soft indie bands popped up. The pressure from all these bands ensured that, eventually, one or more of them would break through (it was Death Cab for Cutie, mostly).

Today!

Gaza, “Skull Trophy”

Gaza, out of Salt Lake City, played a brand of metal that crossed a bunch of arbitrary genre boundaries, usually a combination of sludge and doom. I recognize that these kinds of categorizations are deeply unhelpful for folks unfamiliar with metal, and yet I provide them anyway. It’s loud and angry! It sometimes slows down to a drag along ala doom, and is often centered around big riffs, like sludge. And has a lot of shouting.